Assessment Choices and School Readiness Plans

As a part of an aligned system of public education, school readiness assessment in kindergarten was recognized by the General Assembly as a critical element of aligned assessments continuing from preschool to elementary (§22-7-1002).  The State Board of Education has approved assessment tools determined to be valid, reliable and research-based instruments for assessing kindergarten school readiness and informing individual readiness plans (§22-7-1014). Assessment of school readiness in kindergarten is required to include physical well-being and motor development, social and emotional development, language and comprehension development, cognition, literacy, and mathematics (§22-7-1004). Beginning in the 2021-2022 academic year, the kindergarten school readiness collection format changed to reflect the State Board of Education's decision to include named domains to the reporting requirements. The State Board of Education updated the approved list of assessments in June 2023.

The school readiness assessment is administered to each student enrolled in a publicly funded kindergarten within the first sixty days of the school year and assesses each child’s physical well-being and motor development, social and emotional development, language and comprehension development, and cognition and general knowledge, including literacy and mathematics (§22-7-1014). Districts determine the initial 60-day assessment window in accordance with their individual student start dates. School readiness assessments are not to be used to deny a student admission or progression to kindergarten or first grade (§22-7-1004 2(a)).

Flexibility in Implementation

The following flexibilities are provided (§22-7-1014 2(a)):

• If a reading assessment pursuant to §22-7-1205 (1)(a.5)) is administered within the first sixty days of the school year, the district is not required to administer the literacy component of the school readiness assessment.
• Districts may choose to assess additional areas and/or items of learning and development.
• Districts may choose to continue to monitor a student's progress toward demonstrating school readiness by administering an approved school readiness assessment multiple times over the course of the school year.

Go to Kindergarten School Readiness Guide

Data Privacy and Security

In December 2015, the Colorado State Board of Education approved a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Teaching Strategies regarding the use of the GOLD® assessment for kindergarten school readiness. As part of the MOU, additional privacy safeguards when implementing the assessment tool are in place to ensure even greater levels of student data privacy.

As the new school year approaches, districts are reminded to obtain explicit, individual written parental/guardian consent if planning to use photos and videos in Teaching Strategies GOLD® in kindergarten. Beginning in the 2017-18 school year, opt-in to the documentation functionality will expand to allow for child-level opt-in to be made in one of the following ways: By district, by school, by teacher, by classroom, or by an individual student.

The default setting for pictures and videos will be set to off and only administrators will be allowed to change the opt-in status to on. A student’s opt-in status is tracked by individual student, even if the opt-in is made using one of the bulk methods described above. Each district may use locally determined systems to house and track parental or guardian permission when using one of the bulk methods described above.

CDE Data Privacy and Security Policies webpage is a resource for early childhood assessment.

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Individual learning plans are required for every publicly funded kindergartner (§22-7-1014). Additionally, if a student is identified as having a significant reading deficiency, the student's READ plan is to be created as a component of the student's individualized readiness plan (§22-7-1014(1)(a)). For additional information on READ plan requirements, visit the READ plan webpage.

Plan Resources

• Sample plan template (docx):
  • This template integrates the requirements of both READ plans and school readiness plans.
  • This is a customizable template; however, review the READ plan checklist to ensure compliance with the READ Act following any modifications.
• Example individual learning plan (docx):
  • This example uses mock beginning of year assessment data in the sample plan template.
• 2020 Kindergarten School Readiness and READ Plans Webinar and PowerPoint Slides
  • Recorded webinar with additional information.

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