September2014

Washington Kindergarten Inventory of Developing Skills

  1. Purpose: 2SSB5427 (All-Day Kindergarten – Assessment) states that beginning with the 2011-12 school year on a voluntary basis, schools must identify the skills, knowledge, and characteristics of kindergarten students at the beginning of the school year in order to support social-emotional, physical, and cognitive growth and development of individual children; support early learning provider and parent involvement; and inform instruction. Kindergarten teachers shall administer the Washington Kindergarten Inventory of Developing Skills (WaKIDS), as directed by the Superintendent of Public Instruction in consultation with the department of early learning, and report the results to the superintendent. The superintendent shall share the results with the director of the department of early learning.

School districts shall provide an opportunity for parents andguardians to excuse their children from participation in the WashingtonKindergarten Inventory of Developing Skills.

To the extent funds are available, beginning in the 2012-13school year, the Washington Kindergarten Inventory of Developing Skillsshall be administered at the beginning of the school year to all students enrolled in state-funded full-day kindergarten programs with the exception of students who have been excused from participation by their parents or guardians.

Until full implementation of state-funded all-day kindergarten,the superintendent of public instruction, in consultation with the director of the department of early learning, may grant annual, renewable waivers from the requirement to administer the Washington kindergarten inventory of developing skills.A school district seeking a waiver for one or more of its schools must submit an application to the office of the superintendent of public instruction that includes:

(i)A description of the kindergarten readiness assessment andtransition processes that it proposes to administer instead of the Washington kindergarten inventory of developing skills;

(ii)(ii) An explanation of why the administration of the Washingtonkindergarten inventory of developing skills would be unduly burdensome;and

(iii)(iii) An explanation of how administration of the alternativekindergarten readiness assessment will support social-emotional,physical, and cognitive growth and development of individual children; support early learning provider and parent involvement; and inform instruction.

Before implementing the Washington kindergarten inventory ofdeveloping skills as provided under RCW 28A.150.315, the superintendent of public instruction and the department of early learning must assure that a fairness and bias review of the assessment process has been conducted, including providing an opportunity for input from the achievement gap oversight and accountability committee under RCW 28A.300.136 and from an additional diverse group of community representatives, parents, and educators to be convened by the superintendent and the director of the department.

A second piece of legislation, ESHB 2586, is relevant, as well. The purpose of ESHB 2586 is to require that the Washington Kindergarten Inventory of Developing Skills (WaKIDS) replace administration of other assessments being required by school districts or that other assessments only be administered if they seek to obtain information not covered by the Washington Kindergarten Inventory of Developing Skills.

To the extent funds are available, beginning in the 2012-13school year, the Washington Kindergarten Inventory of Developing Skills shall be administered at the beginning of the school year to all students enrolled in state-funded full-day kindergarten programs under RCW 28A.150.315 with the exception of students who have been excused from participation by their parents or guardians.

The Superintendent of Public Instruction, in consultation with the department of early learning, shall convene a work group toprovide:(i) Input and recommendations with respect to implementation of the Washington kindergarten inventory of developing skills; (ii) Recommendations regarding the optimum way to administer the Washington Kindergarten Inventory of Developing Skills to children in half-day kindergarten while ensuring that they receive the maximum instruction as required in RCW 28A.150.205; and (iii) Recommendations with respect to achieving the goal of replacing assessments currently required by school districts with the Washington Kindergarten Inventory of Developing Skills.

The work group shall include:(i) One representative from the office of the superintendent of public instruction; (ii) One representative from the department of early learning; (iii) One representative from the nongovernmental private-public partnership defined in RCW 43.215.010;(iv) Five representatives, including both teachers and principals, from school districts that participated in the pilot project, with every effort made to make sure that there is representation from across the state;(v) Two parents who are familiar with and participated in the Washington kindergarten inventory of developing skills pilot during the 2010-11 school year; and (vi) A representative from an independent, nonprofit children and family services organization with a main campus in North Bend, Washington.

The work group may solicit input from people who are recent implementers of the Washington kindergarten inventory of developing skills.

A preliminary report and recommendations shall be submitted to the education committees of the senate and the house of representatives by December 1, 2012. A subsequent report and recommendations shall be submitted to the education committees of the senate and the house of representatives by December 1, 2013, and annually by December 1st thereafter.

The work group shall terminate upon full statewide implementation of all-day kindergarten.

To the extent funds are available, additional support in the form of implementation grants shall be offered to schools on a schedule to be determined by the office of superintendent of public instruction, in consultation with the department of early learning.

  1. Description of services provided: OSPI provides leadership and administration of the WaKIDS kindergarten entry transition process, which includes three components (Family Connection, Whole Child Assessment and Early Learning Collaboration). OSPI coordinates a regional network of ESDs to provide training and technical assistance to teachers in schools implementing WaKIDS. OSPI also coordinates the legislative workgroup established by ESHB 2586.
  2. Number of staff associated with this program/service (indicate where applicable):

Fiscal Year 2014

# of OSPI staff associated with this funding (FTEs): 3.85

# of contractors/other staff associated with this funding: 1

Teaching Strategies LLC$ 430,632.50

FY 14 Funding: State Appropriation: $2,112,000.00

4.Is continued funding needed in the next biennium? Yes

  1. What is the current status of this program’s implementation? The program was piloted in 2010-2011 and implemented in volunteer schools in 2011-2012. Beginning in 2012-2013, WaKIDS was required in all state-funded, full-day kindergarten schools unless the district received a waiver from the Superintendent of Public Instruction. In 2013-14, 550 schools, 187 districts, 1,800 kindergarten teachers, and 38,443 students participated in WaKIDS. Most schools (453) were state-funded, full-day kindergarten; 97 were volunteer.

6.When will the project be completed? On-going

7.First year funded: 2012

8.State funding since inception:

Fiscal Year / Amount
FY 14 / $2,112,000
FY13 / $1,400,000
FY 12 / $500,000

9. Major challenges faced by the program: Continuation offunding is necessary for the program to continue.For three years, federal funding from the Department of Early Learning’s Race to the Top grant has supported teacher training on the assessment component of WaKIDS. Slightly over half of the state’s kindergarten teachers are in schools that have not yet received funding for state full-day kindergarten (SF FDK), and will need to be trained as SF FDK and WaKIDS continue to phase in. OSPI is in the final year of an inter-agency agreement with DEL for the available RTTT funding; the current agreement ends June 30, 2014.

In addition, the legislature signaled its intent, should funds be available, to provide additional support to schools through implementation grants for the state’s kindergarten transition process, the Washington Kindergarten Inventory of Developing Skills (WaKIDS) (RCW 28A.655.080, section 3). District-based Implementation grants for the 2015-17 biennium would cost $2,104,800 to support 3,135 teachers (2015-16) and 3,881 teachers (2016-17) at the rate of $300 per teacher each year.

OSPI received one-time funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to support implementation grants for 2013-14. Districts reported the top three uses for these privately-sourced grants were: 1) substitutes to give teachers release time, 2) one-time hardware costs, and 3) resources to align curriculum/assessments with Teaching Strategies GOLD®. These grants were well-received by districts.

10. Statutory and/or Budget language: ESSB 6002 – Chapter 501 (3)c(iv) - $2,112,000 of the general fund-state appropriation for fiscal year 2014 and $1,400,000 of the general fund-state appropriation for fiscal year 2015 are provided solely for the implementation of chapter 340, Laws of 2011 (2SSB 5427) and chapter 51, Laws of 2012 (ESHB 2586). This includes the development and implementation of the Washington kindergarten inventory of developing skills (WaKIDS).