NIEER Pre-K Data Snapshot

Assessments of children’s learning and development can be important tools for teachers, administrators, and even parents. Used together with other information, they may inform the teaching of individual children and—when aggregated—decisions about how to support early education from the classroom to statewide levels. This snapshot uses data from the State of Preschool Yearbook surveys that have been collected for more than 15 years to investigate state policies regarding pre-K assessment.  Questions include: which of the 45 states with state-funded pre-K programs require preschool child assessments and what assessment tools are used? We also evaluate whether or not they are aligned to required kindergarten assessments. While 38 of 45 states require their preschool programs to assess children’s learning and development during the preschool year(s), only four states use the same or an enhanced version of the same tool in both pre-K and kindergarten.