Kindergarten Readiness Indicators (KRI) Pilot Update for the Indiana State Board of Education

1. Kindergarten Readiness Indicators (KRI)Pilot Update for the Indiana State Board of Education Presented by: Claire Fiddian-Green, Richard M. Fairbanks Foundation Dr. Marc Hernandez, NORC at the University of Chicago July 10, 2019

2. KRI Overview • The Kindergarten Readiness Indicators (KRI) is a brief assessment of literacy, oral language and math skills for use by Indiana Pre-K providers • Key features: • 15 to 20 minutes to administer • Easy to use and optimized for use on mobile devices • Direct measures versus dependent on teacher observation • Aligned with Indiana Early Learning Development Framework Foundations • Subjected to rigorous statistical validation • Developed by NORC and the University of Chicago with funding from the Richard M. Fairbanks Foundation (Indianapolis) and Welborn Baptist Foundation (Evansville) totaling $525K • Royalty-free license in perpetuity so will not require use of public dollars for development or licensing costs

3. NORC at the University of Chicago • NORC is a public policy and social science research organization with a mission to conduct high-quality research in the public interest • Dr. Marc Hernandez, Principal Research Scientist at NORC, is an expert in early childhood and elementary education and has led development of the KRI

4. Getting on Track • KRI is adapted from Getting On Track Early for School Success (GoT), a more comprehensive formative assessment being used in Northwest Indiana • GoT has been iteratively developed by the University of Chicago and NORC with input from teachers and students, reviewed by experts in the field of early education and subjected to rigorous statistical validation • NORC selected a subset of items from GoT to keep KRI short while maximizing alignment with Indiana Foundations • KRI covers 2/3 ELA Foundations and 4/5 math Foundations • Average assessment time is 15 minutes

5. KRI Pilot Validation Results • Spring 2018: NORC partnered with Early Learning Indiana and 4C to administer the KRI in Marion and Vanderburgh counties • 415 Pre-K students total • Students of diverse racial and socio-economic backgrounds • Pre-K providers with varying quality, including informal programs • Fall 2018: NORC followed up with 182 of the spring pilot students to ensure results from Pre-K predicted readiness at Kindergarten entry • Results: • Strong psychometric properties • Pre-K KRI results were predictive of results at Kindergarten entry

6. Expanded Pilot • Spring 2019: NORC conducted an implementation pilot • 650 Pre-K students in Marion and Vanderburgh counties • Variety of Pre-K settings (e.g., school, faith-based, childcare homes) • Mix of teachers and third parties administering the assessment • Purpose is to confirm KRI’s applicability across provider types and collect additional feedback on ease of administration • 2018 and 2019 administrations, combined with research from GoT, provides strong evidence for the validity of the KRI as a tool to quickly assess Pre-K students’ kindergarten readiness

7. KRI Application • The KRI is designed to be used statewide across Pre-K provider types • The data can be aggregated at the classroom, Pre-K provider, local, regional and state levels to inform education stakeholders, policymakers, and the general public about the academic readiness of Indiana’s Pre-K children • KRI data will enable stakeholders to identify areas for improvement (e.g., curriculum, geographies) and will also enable better allocation of public and private resources

8. THANK YOU! ABOUT US NORC at the University of Chicago Website: www.norc.org, Twitter: @NORCNews Richard M. Fairbanks Foundation Website: www.rmff.org, Twitter: @RMFFIndy Welborn Baptist Foundation Website: www.welbornfdn.org/, Facebook: @WelbornBaptistFoundation