The Kindergarten Academic and Behavior Readiness Screener: The utility of single-item teacher ratings of kindergarten readiness.

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to explore the effectiveness of a brief, feasible, and cost-effective universal screener for kindergarten readiness. The study examined whether teacher ratings of kindergarteners' academic, behavioral, and overall readiness at the beginning of the year were predictive of academic, emotional, and behavioral outcomes at the end of the year. Participants included 19 kindergarten teachers and their students (n = 350) from 6 urban elementary schools; all teachers were female and the majority of children were African American (74%) or White (23%). Thirty-six percent of children qualified for free or reduced lunch. Teachers completed single-item ratings of student readiness as well as full scale ratings of student prosocial skills, disruptive behaviors, and academic competence. Students also completed a standardized academic achievement test. Independent observers rated disruptive behaviors in the classroom. Readiness items had statistically significant relations with a range of academic, emotional, and behavior indicators. Hierarchical linear regression analyses found that readiness items predicted end-of-year outcomes when controlling for baseline covariates. Items also predicted higher likelihood of negative academic and behavior categorical outcomes and demonstrated classification utility. Schools need universal screening options that are feasible and easy to implement school-wide. The screening tool presented in this study offers a viable, psychometrically strong option for school teams and professionals interested in universal screening.

Academically Resilient Latino Elementary Students Bridging the Achievement Gap

“…This finding emphasizes the potential importance of access to high-quality preschool experiences as a necessary pre-condition to bridge the achievement gap (Rumberger and Arellano 2009), particularly for Latino children (Burchinal et al 2012). In addition, the fact that the kindergarten teachers' observations of students in the first month of kindergarten strongly foreshadowed a pattern of lagging levels of academic development is consistent with other studies that support the value of kindergarten teachers' perspectives for school readiness screening that initiates early school support services (Goldstein et al 2014;Stormont et al 2014).…”

Empirically Derived Profiles of Teacher Stress, Burnout, Self-Efficacy, and Coping and Associated Student Outcomes

“…However, a recent study supported the concurrent and predictive validity of these single items, comparable with and in some cases better than other longer measures of stress (Eddy et al, 2017). Several recent studies have also suggested the promise of single-item measures, countering the assumptions of classical test theory regarding such measures (see Reinke & Herman, 2016; Stormont, Herman, Reinke, King, & Owens, 2015). Moreover, these stress and coping items have a high degree of face validity, they distinguished teacher profiles, and were associated with student outcomes, providing further evidence of the validity and usefulness of these items in this study.…”

The Social and Emotional Dimensions of a Single Item Overall School Readiness Screener and its Relation to Academic Outcomes

“…Future research should also explore whether these skills are important targets for intervention in pre-school prior to the transition to kindergarten. Stormont et al (2015) found that readiness items had very good specificity and more modest sensitivity. An advantage of a screener with strong specificity is that children identified as being not ready are very likely to be students who will benefit from additional supports.…”

“…In a longitudinal study with 350 kindergarten students, a single behavioral readiness item had moderate concurrent correlations (Cohen, 1988) with academic and disruptive subscales from the TOCA (r = .58-.74; Koth, Bradshaw, & Leaf, 2009). Moreover, fall behavioral ratings on the single item were predictive of spring academic achievement as measured by the Woodcock-Johnson (WJ; Stormont, Herman, Reinke, King, & Owens, 2015) and students who were rated in the fall (October) as not behaviorally ready to start school were 14 times as likely to have low end-of-year prosocial behaviors and 11 times as likely to have high disruptive behaviors compared with those rated ready at the start of the year. Combining readiness items did not improve the predictive power.…”