A look at what’s in the new kindergarten assessment

A new assessment for kindergartners will not require them to fill in the bubbles on an answer sheet. It also won’t require one-on-one work with a teacher where the child has to prove his or her skills.

What it is: The Kindergarten Individualized Development Survey is an assessment teachers fill out based on daily observations. Student development is assessed across 26 measures in the areas of self and social development, self regulation, language and literacy development, and mathematical development. English language learners have an extra four measures based on their English language development.

Where it came from: An original version was developed by the California Department of Education more than 10 years ago. The School Readiness version was released last year. An Illinois advisory committee of the state board of education recommended its use on kindergartners, but the original design is for children from birth to age 12, leaving Illinois room for expansion.

How it’s used: Teachers collect data in a variety of ways including with video or audio recordings of their students, photos and written notes. During a reporting period, teachers must log their notes and assessments of each child into a computer database that can generate reports for the district and state about student readiness.

The pilot: Teachers in 64 school districts statewide are involved in the pilot with about 5,000 students. The Illinois State Board of Education has been training teachers since August on data collection and reporting. The pilot is expected to be expanded to 10,000 kindergarten students next year, 30,000 students the following year and all 150,000 or so kindergarten students in the state during the 2015-16 school year.