Both Yazoo City and Yazoo County students improved on the state’s recent Kindergarten Readiness Assessment. Overall, the Mississippi Department of Education announced that statewide students saw gains during the past year, coming closer to reaching pre-pandemic achievement levels.
Kindergartners and pre-K students take a Kindergarten Readiness Assessment in the fall and spring of each school year. Historically, in the fall about one-third of kindergartners score kindergarten-ready on the assessment. When the 2023-24 kindergartners were retested in spring 2024, 63.8 percent met the end-of-year target score, an increase from 61.4 percent in spring 2023. Before the pandemic in spring 2019, 65.6 percent of kindergartners met the target score.
“Mississippi’s early childhood educators continue to improve achievement among our kindergarten and pre-K students,” said Dr. Lance Evans, state superintendent of education. “The MDE expects this upward trend to continue as we implement strategies and enhance our support for teachers statewide.”
Locally, 158 students at McCoy Elementary School were tested within the city school district. Those students saw a 183-scale score gain from fall of 2023 to spring of this year. This spring, McCoy students scored a 658 average, which was an increase from last fall with a 475 average.
Within the county school district, 54 students at Bentonia Gibbs were tested, scoring 730 this spring, which was a 219-point increase from last fall’s 511 score. At Linwood Elementary School, 34 students were tested and scored 673 this spring, which was a 173-point increase from fall’s score of 500.
The Kindergarten Readiness Assessment provides parents, teachers, and early childhood providers with a common understanding of what children know and can do upon entering school. Teachers use the results as an instructional baseline to tailor classroom instruction and other services for pre-K and kindergarten students. The assessment also measures how well pre-K programs prepare 4-year-old children to be ready for kindergarten.
MDE has contracted with Renaissance Learning to administer the KRA assessments since 2014-15. The contract ended June 30. Recently, the State Board of Education approved a contract for Imagination Station, Inc. to administer the assessments beginning in the 2024-25 school year. MDE will work with the new vendor to set the 30-day window for the KRA pre-test for fall 2024.
