- Economic impact (poverty)
- How the assessment is delivered and by whom - in a prior year tests were only delivered via iPad which might be a barrier for young children with limited technology access/experience, create lag times that show up as deficiencies in motor skills, etc.
- Who developed the assessment?
- Potential for bias - both in the assessment itself as well as in early learning teachers/providers (similar to classroom discipline disparities in school-aged children)
- Language Barriers (tests aren't available in other languages) which further perpetuates gaps for ELL
- Technology Barriers
- Consistency in the assessments
- Comparing tests from earlier years - would love to know about MSDE/AACPS's staff opinions on the change to the test content/process and how that has shifted us from 80%+ readiness
- Concerns about COVID compounding issues that contribute to readiness
- Parents may be unaware of the things they could/should work on with their young children to ensure readiness
- Quality childcare/early childhood education programming - we need more of it
- Accesss to childcare/early childhood education is equally problematic - not enough slots, most options are not affordable for a large percentage of parents
- Lack of programs that are involving the parents to reinforce concepts learn in preK/childcare settings
- Headstart Model/empowering parents to support early childhood learning is the ideal model - need more headstart & early headstart locations & spots!
- Parents capacity - working parents may lack time, energy, capacity to provide enough learning at home, time to do regular reading, etc.
- Trusted relationships in the community to connect parents/families to supports and programs
- Engaging the village not just the parent
- Consistency with providers - lots of turnover means lack of consistency in learning as well
- Impact of trauma - community and personal
- Incremental successes need to be celebrated and built on!
- Lack of bilingual resources/resources that address cultural differences
- When are resources available? Timing may make them difficult for working parents to access.
Links shared during discussion:
https://earlychildhood.marylandpublicschools.org/kindergarten-readiness-report
https://www.marylandfamilynetwork.org/sites/default/files/2021-01/AnneArundel_1.pdf
https://hbr.org/2011/05/the-power-of-small-wins
https://www.actiaf.org/
https://aacpl.librarycalendar.com/events/importance-resilience-wellbeing-children