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Improving Systems, Practices, and Outcomes

KSB Newsletter December 13, 2023

News from The Kindergarten Sturdy Bridge (KSB) Learning Community

Logo: Kindergarten Sturdy Bridge (an arcing bridge with three stars above it)

Video Moments

  • Transforming Kindergarten to be a Sturdy Bridge: This video is a presentation by Laura Bornfreund, Senior Fellow and Advisor of Early and Elementary Education, New America. Bornfreund provides an overview of kindergarten as the first universal access point for all children's education and the foundation for all future learning and the need to strengthen kindergarten to better connect or "bridge" Pre-K and other early learning programs with first through third grade experiences. (10:47)
  • The Science of Reading: This video features an interview with Dr. Nell K. Duke, Stand for Children, University of Michigan. Duke describes the science of reading overall and then provides details on how it can be reflected in kindergarten. She emphasizes that the science of reading involves promotion of equity throughout the entire kindergarten day through teacher expectations and practices. (17:06)
  • The URGENT Need to Support Attendance Every Day for Our Youngest Students: This video from Hedy Chang, Executive Director and President of Attendance Works, highlights the current problem with chronic absence and consequence of academic risk. She warns that chronic absenteeism is a leading indicator and a cause of educational inequity. Chang tells us that these data mean we must redouble investment in positive conditions for learning. The updated Early Matters Toolkit is available to support schools, districts, and communities. (8:30)
  • What If We Really Used Research to Guide Our Practice?: This video presentation by Dr. Sharon Ritchie, Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute, UNC Chapel Hill, addresses the responsibility of schools, administrators, teachers, and communities to be "ready" to welcome and support children in kindergarten. Ritchie looks at all that we know from brain research, trajectories, and universal needs, and the implications for schools, curriculum, and practices. (13:24)

Resources from the Field

Attendance

  • The First Month of School and Beyond: Nurturing Attendance Every Day Listen: This recorded webinar features Hedy Chang from Attendance Works leading a conversation with experts at the district, school, community, and city levels. Speakers each share their multifaceted approach to partnering with families to overcome attendance barriers and make attendance a priority strategy for laying the foundation for early school success.
  • Bringing Attendance Home: Engaging Parents in Preventing Chronic Absence: This web page Attendance Works features toolkits tailored for educators working with students in preschool through secondary school, as well as principals and school districts. The toolkits are filled with strategies and resources for monitoring, understanding, and addressing chronic absence. The approaches can be implemented in the classroom, or at the school, district, community, or state level.

Assessment

  • The "Why" Behind Kindergarten Entry Assessments: This policy brief from NIEER in August 2020 discusses how Kindergarten Entry Assessments (KEAs) have the potential to provide policymakers, state agencies, LEAs, teachers, and families with rich data to inform teaching practices, program quality, and necessary interventions. The brief includes strong examples of states using KEA data to address each of these areas.
  • Kindergarten entry assessments: What you need to know: This video from the Institute of Education Science, Regional Education Laboratory Program, discusses the need for kindergarten entry assessments, provides an overview of what kindergarten entry assessments are, and explains the uses and benefits of kindergarten entry assessments.
  • Illinois Kindergarten Individual Development Survey Report: This state report was issued in the Fall of 2021 from the Illinois State Board of Education and summarizes their statewide implementation of a common set of developmental measures using the Kindergarten Individual Development Survey (KIDS).

Instruction

Transition into Kindergarten