Ealy Entrance Screener

EARLY ENTRANCE SCREENERS

As stated in the Entrance Appeal information, South Madison believes that as a general rule, it is beneficial for students to be five years old or older to enter kindergarten and six years of age to enter first grade with completion of kindergarten in an accredited public, charter, or private school. However, it is also recognized that there are some children who are advanced -- socially, emotionally, and academically -- who would benefit from early entrance or entrance to first grade without the benefit of kindergarten. SMCSC has established guidelines for enrollment which are consistent with Indiana law, sound educational practice, SMCSC Board policy, and ensure equitable treatment and proper placement.

Once again, consideration for a waiver for early entrance to kindergarten or First Grade is based on the following criteria:

The child must be of legal settlement within the South Madison Community School Corporation to be considered for early entrance. Siblings of current Non-Resident students: Students wishing to attend kindergarten or first grade who do not live in the legal settlement, may apply through the NR application, but will be subject to the same criteria as those living within the legal settlement area for early admission.

  • The child’s birthday is in August or September for the state mandated cut off year.. 
  • No child whose birthday is later than September 30 of the state mandated cut off year will be considered for an appeal.
  • The child’s screening results meet minimum expectations on screening.
  • Space is available in the requested school in kindergarten or 1st grade classes.

Admission to First Grade without completion of Kindergarten is based on the following criteria:

  • The child must be of legal age based on Indiana guidelines.
  • The child’s screening results will determine appropriate placement in first grade or kindergarten.


SCREENERS:

Kindergarten: Pre-kids and Naglieri with the expectation of scores at the 90th percentile.

First grade: NWEA Reading Fluency and NWEA Math Checklist with expectations of mastery

Pre-kindergarten, PreKids, Inventory of Demonstrated Skills

PreKids, is designed to provide insight about what skills a student may or may not have before entering school. This screener is utilized by South Madison for all incoming kindergarten students. It addresses skills based on the Foundation to the Indiana Academic Standards for Young Children from Birth to Age 5 and Indiana’s Academic Standards, Kindergarten including:

  • Oral language
  • Letter, Color, and Number identification
  • Phonemic awareness, print awareness, beginning sounds, and rhymes
  • Visual and auditory memory
  • Number sense, Counting, One to One Correspondence, Shape identification, and Measurement Comparison
  • Social skills (i.e. testing observational data)

Brigance Screen III (3-5)

Brigance Early Childhood focuses on the skills that lead to school success. The Brigance Early Childhood screeners consist of up-to-date early childhood screening and assessment tools based on the most current research. Brigance research includes a wide sample of nationally represented children in terms of geographic, demographic, and socioeconomic characteristics. The scores of the children assessed were consistent when examined repeatedly through research studies. Differences in scores were attributable to real differences in abilities, as opposed to chance error. BRIGANCE screening results correlate with other early development, achievement, intelligence, and language tests (page 6, Brigance technical summary). The decisions based on test scores and the inferences on which the decisions are based are justified by supporting evidence.

“Screening plays a critical role in determining school readiness, particularly for children entering Kindergarten. Many states have their own definitions of school readiness, but in its most general form, school readiness means that a child possesses a set of prerequisite skills and abilities (e.g., knowledge, attitudes, behaviors) that will allow that child to benefit from instruction at the Kindergarten level (and above) (Anastasi and Urbina, 1997)2 . Accurate screening of behavioral, language, and academic skills (with valid and reliable measures) assists in ensuring children are ready to achieve.” 

Brigance Technical Summary

The  Brigance Early Childhood screening and assessment inventories use observation, interviews, and child performance to pinpoint understanding in the domains tied to early development and school or kindergarten readiness. Test content aligns to Indiana’s learning standards.

The Brigance Screen III will assess skills in the following key domains: 

  • Physical Development 
  • Language Development 
  • Academic Skills/Cognitive Development, including both literacy and mathematics
  • Self-help Skills
  • Social Development/Adaptive Behavior

Students will be screened in self help and social emotional skills as well as reading readiness skills.  Each screen takes approximately 10–15 minutes per child and allows for comparison of performance to the cutoff scores as to the performance of same-age children. The Early Childhood Screens III  evaluates the key predictors of school success.



NWEA Reading Fluency 

Reading Fluency — part of the Early Literacy Solution from NWEA — is an adaptive universal screening assessment for PK-5. Aligned to the science of reading, Reading Fluency screens for foundational reading skills, oral reading fluency, and literal comprehension in about 20 minutes. Foundational skills test screens a student on phonological awareness, phonics, word recognition, and print concepts, including letter-sound fluency, initial sound fluency, letter knowledge, listening comprehension and vocabulary. Depending on how a student performs, they will advance to more or less difficult skills. This powerful tool efficiently assesses in English and Spanish.



NWEA Skills Checklist

The Skills Checklist for primary grades is a component of the NWEA MAP® Growth™ K–12 suite designed to enhance student learning outcomes. This assessment tool evaluates proficiency in specific skills and serves as a screening tool to gather information, particularly for students without prior data. 


Early numeracy skills, such as counting, matching, identifying numerals, and basic computation using manipulatives, are included for pre-kindergarten and beginning kindergarten students. These quick measures are non-adaptive, which means all students will engage in the same test content. Each checklist has between 11-53 items. Results are scored as percent correct. They help answer the question, what level of mastery does the student possess for the individual skill. 



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