Kindergarten Readiness Pilot (WaKIDS)

Washington Kindergarten Inventory of Developing Skills (WaKIDS) pilot starts this fall!

 Our state is piloting the Washington Kindergarten Inventory of Developing Skills (WaKIDS) in 120 classrooms around the state during school year 2010-2011. The pilot will help our state learn more about how to best support successful transitions from the first five years of life into kindergarten and beyond.

The pilot has three parts, one of which will include early care and education professionals. Child care providers and other early learning professionals know a lot about the children they have worked with: It makes sense for them to share that information with kindergarten teachers! The three parts of the pilot are:

• Family connection—Time for the kindergarten teacher and family to meet and share information about the child entering kindergarten.
• Whole child assessment—Inventory of where children are in four domains of child development (social/emotional; literacy; cognitive; physical). Three different “bundles” of assessment tools will be tested by different communities during the pilot.
• Early learning collaboration—Time for early learning providers and kindergarten teachers to meet and share information about children entering kindergarten.

Learn more—and find out whether your local school district is part of the pilot—by visiting www.del.wa.gov/wakids.