North Carolina Public Kindergarten Teacher Perceptions on Readiness and the Development of a State K-3 Assessment

An established pioneer in matters of early childhood education, North Carolina will be using the Race to the Top grant money they won in 2010 to create and implement a statewide K-3 assessment. The Department of Public Instruction formed a think tank to develop the vision for the tool and the final product will be administered to all public schools in 2015. This study is one facet of a multidimensional project aimed at bringing several key stakeholders to the table to discuss the development of this assessment instrument. In this project, teachers were asked to rate 22 items suggested for inclusion in the assessment on a 1-6 scale in terms of importance, 1 being the least important and 6 being the most important information for their day-to-day classroom instruction. Respondents were also asked to comment on the helpfulness and delivery of the assessment as well. Previous studies led to the hypothesis that teachers would prioritize the Social/Emotional Development domain of assessment over Cognitive Development or Literacy. The data were gathered by an online survey sent in an email to 9,493 public school kindergarten teachers and the respondents comprised a volunteer sample of 2,596 cases, a 25.62% response rate. Results showed that teachers placed greatest importance on Language and Literacy Development, followed by Cognitive Development. Parent’s Education Level was given the lowest mean rate of importance out of the 22 suggested items. There was broad support for the assessment and the use of electronic tablets in its delivery. However, teachers did not support the option of the assessment being delivered through home visits. Demographic variations by region, locale size, education level and experience of teachers existed but were not robust.