The 2018-2019 Kindergarten Readiness Summary Results were recently released by the Mississippi Department of Education.
The Kindergarten Readiness Assessment, according to the MDE, is used to measure how prepared children are for kindergarten. Its purpose is to improve the quality of classroom instruction and other services provided to students until the third grade.
The state average for the spring is 711 with the state benchmark being set at 681, which is a transitional reader. A transitional reader is a student who has mastered alphabet skills and letter-sound relationships, can identify consonant and vowel sounds and is probably able to blend sounds and word parts to read simple words, according to the readiness results.
The state benchmark for the fall of 2018 was 530, and the average was 501. Columbia Primary School’s score was 478. East Marion Elementary School’s score was 466, and West Marion Elementary School was 460.
The spring 2019 scores showed improvement in all three schools. Columbia Primary gained 261 points to 739, East Marion scored higher by 208 points to 674 and West Marion’s score jumped 263 points 723.
Both Columbia Primary and West Marion scored not only above the state benchmark of 681 but also above the state average of 711. East Marion was just shy of the 681 benchmark.
A total of 286 students took the assessment this spring.
The Marion County School District on the whole scored a 462 in the fall 2018 assessment and increased by 243 points to 705 in the spring, with a total of 169 taking the test.
Marion County Superintendent Wendy Bracey said she was very proud of the students, parents and teachers.
“Everyone worked very hard, and it showed in the growth over the year,” she said.
