Viva Strategy + Communications
Kindergarten
Student Entrance
Profile
KSEP
Presenters:
Kendra Rogers, First 5 Fresno County
Deanna Mathies, Fresno Unified School District
Facilitator:
Dr. Michele Cantwell-Copher,
Fresno County Office of Education
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What is the KSEP?

Developmentally appropriate assessment of
academic and social emotional readiness

Research-based observational assessment
that is able to predict later grade level
achievement as measured by the California
Standards Tests (CST)

It supports the school readiness indicators
advocated by the National Association for the
Education of Young Children (NAEYC), the
National Governor’s Task Force on School
Readiness, and the recent Grade Level
Reading Campaign
+KSEP Website
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How Does the KSEP Work?

The KSEP is administered by teachers during the first 6 weeks of school
to determine a student’s social-emotional and school-ready knowledge.

Based on the observations, the student are placed into one of the
following categories of kindergarten readiness.
Ready to Go
Quarterly
Monitoring
Monthly
Monitoring
Immediate
Follow-up
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KSEP Item Examples
Cognitive
Social-Emotional

Recognizes own written name


Understands that numbers
represent quantity
Seeks adult help when
appropriate

Demonstrates expressive verbal
ability
Is enthusiastic and curious
about school

Engages in cooperative play
activities with peers

The KSEP contains a total of 13 items: 7 cognitive, 6 social-emotional.
Each item has a rubric of 1 (not yet), 2 (emerging), 3 (almost mastered),
and 4 (mastered)
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KSEP: An Important Tool

The data provided by the KSEP offers the
insight necessary to:
 Address the immediate needs of incoming
kindergarten students

Provides a predictive data point never before
universally gathered in Fresno County

Can support more efficient use of resources,
both prevention and intervention
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KSEP: Implementation in Fresno
County

In Fall 2012, 4 school districts completed the
KSEP:
 Central
 Sanger
 Clovis
 Fresno

Between these districts, 121 schools
participated and 10,628 students were
assessed.

Each district entered data into their own data
system, then transferred the data to the Fresno
County Office of Education (FCOE), Mosaic,
and UCSB for processing and analysis.
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KSEP: Results
Analysis produced the following break-down of
kindergarten readiness across the 4 participating districts:
Ready to Go:
36.90%
n=3,992
Quarterly
Monitoring
33.02%
n=3,507
Monthly
Monitoring
22.54%
n=2,395
Immediate
Follow-up
6.07%
n= 645
*1.47% of the 10,628 assessments were invalid
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KSEP: Results
“Ready to Go”
60% of these students
score proficient or
advanced on 2nd
grade Language Arts
CST
“Quarterly
Monitor”
75% of 3rd graders
who are poor
readers, will be
poor readers in
high school
“Monthly
Monitor”
“Immediate
Follow-Up”
7% of these students
score proficient or
advanced on the 2nd
grade Language Arts
CST
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KSEP: Key Finding
The published data overwhelmingly demonstrates that
preschool attendance is a critical component of
kindergarten readiness. That is now additionally
supported by Fresno County KSEP data.

Fresno County KSEP results shows:
 50% of students who attended preschool were
considered “Ready To Go”
 21% of students who did not attend preschool were
considered “Ready To Go”
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KSEP: Implications
What can we do now that we could not do before?

We can document the preparation levels of students when they enter
kindergarten and follow their progress unlike ever before

We can target additional supports to communities and groups who are
disproportionally entering school without readiness

We can inform community funders of the needs of young children with
a universal platform of assessment

We can offer supports to kindergarteners in research informed
approach

We can create a professional learning community so districts can share
what they are doing to provide supports to the children shown on the
KSEP to be underprepared and see which interventions work
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A Case Study in Fresno Unified
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Questions
Answers
Dialogue
+Moving Forward…
STRIVE
Critical
Transitions
Scale
Systems
Implications