The Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) released the first-ever statewide snapshot of kindergarten readiness in Illinois. The data cap off the first year of the state’s bold effort to collect readiness data for all kindergartners in the state. The Kindergarten Individual Development Survey (KIDS) puts critical information about children’s early development into the hands of policymakers, schools, and communities. Current KIDS data, when considered with data on Free and Reduced-Price Lunch eligibility, suggest that students not receiving free or reduced-price lunch in general demonstrate higher readiness when entering kindergarten. ISBE will analyze additional indicators for possible trends or patterns in subsequent years.

What is KIDS?
Teachers use the KIDS instrument to observe and document students’ skills, knowledge, and behaviors on 14 required measures in three developmental areas that are key to long-term success: social-emotional development, language and literacy, and math. Teachers observe students’ strengths in the first 40 days of instruction as they go about their daily routines – such as playing, schoolwork, conversations, and following directions – with no interruption to regular classroom activity. School districts have the option of using the tool again in the winter and spring to track students’ developmental progress and of collecting up to 55 measures for a richer, fuller picture of individual development.

What does KIDS data show?
IDS provides a measure of children’s development upon entering kindergarten. Children enter kindergarten with a wide range of prior child care and education experiences, including in-home care, child care centers, family care, Head Start, pre-kindergarten, and privately run programs. The results of KIDS do not reflect the work taking place in schools prior to or after KIDS data collection. Children’s experiences prior to kindergarten do not reflect district or school performance. KIDS entails teachers using a new observational tool and entering data into a new platform. Most school districts implemented KIDS for the first time in 2017, the first year of required statewide implementation. View the statewide data summary at www.isbe.net/kids.