The Virginia Kindergarten Readiness Program (VKRP) is an initiative focused on building a more comprehensive understanding of school readiness and student growth. It also includes tools to support early learning. At its core, VKRP is a set of coordinated assessments, a reporting system, and a set of instructional resources. VKRP helps teachers develop a more complete picture of student’s skills during pre-k and kindergarten. In addition, VKRP provides reports and instructional resources that teachers and families can use to support children’s growth and learning inside and outside of their classroom.
Literacy, mathematics, self-regulation, and social skills assessments are combined to provide teachers with a comprehensive picture of students’ skills at the beginning and end of pre-k and kindergarten. VKRP places a purposeful and equal emphasis on children’s academic and social-emotional skills.
1) The Virginia Language and Literacy Screener: Pre-K (VALLS: Pre-K) and the Phonological Awareness Literacy Screening (PALS-K) assess students’ literacy skills by asking students a set of interactive, standardized questions.
2) The Early Mathematics Assessment System (EMAS) assesses students’ mathematics skills using interactive manipulatives (including shapes, pattern cards, and pictures) and standardized
questions.
3) The Child Behavior Rating Scale (CBRS) is a teacher reported measure of two areas of students’ social-emotional skills: self-regulation (skills that support students to manage their attention,
emotions, and behaviors to adapt to the demands of the school environment) and social skills (skills that support students to successfully navigate interactions and build relationships with peers and adults). Five additional items allow teachers to collect information on student’s mental health well-being.
VKRP is a statewide initiative directed by the Virginia General Assembly and implemented by the Center for Advanced Study of Teaching and Learning at the University of Virginia (UVA) in partnership with the Virginia Department of Education (VDOE). Since 2013, VKRP has expanded from a pilot assessment system in 100 kindergarten classrooms to a statewide comprehensive assessment system, including 132 school divisions and nearly 87,000 kindergarten students. Beginning in 2021, VKRP expanded to include Pre-K classrooms allowing schools and programs to measure growth over time both within a school year and across school years. We can also identify students’ strengths and support student growth in areas they need it most.
Privacy is important, so student’s VKRP scores will only be shared with their teacher and other educators working with them: your school’s/program’s administrators, your school division’s administrators, and VDOE. UVA will only ever use the data in summary form, with no identifiable information, to protect student’s privacy. The VKRP team at UVA uses the data to examine how VKRP is working, to enhance the assessment system, reports, and resources, and to improve young students’ school experiences in Virginia. UVA may also use the information to better understand young students’ educational experiences across the Commonwealth and may publish or present this information (again, with no individual names or scores).
You can find more information about the VKRP online at https://vkrponline.org/virginia-kindergarten- readiness-program-2/for-families/. If you have questions about VKRP, the assessment process, or how the information will be used, please feel free to contact Penny L. Brooks, Program Administrator: Early Learning and Literacy for Dinwiddie County Public Schools at pbrooks@dcpsnet.org or by phone at (804) 469-4190. You can also contact VKRP directly via email at vkrp@virginia.edu or by phone at (866) 301-8278, ext. 1.