Darrell Turner, a 10-year-veteran preschool teacher, recognizes that the 15 or so students who walk through his door at Martin Luther King Jr. Preschool in Richmond, Va., this coming school year will bring a range of skills and background knowledge. Some will be as young as 3; a few will already have individualized education programs (IEPs).
Turner will soon learn what they know—to the extent that children barely out of diapers can demonstrate school readiness skills like early literacy and numeracy on demand. In the first month of school, Turner will administer a state-mandated math assessment one-on-one to each student in his inclusion class. He’ll use a rating scale to measure students’ self-regulation and social skills. And, three times during the school year, he’ll evaluate students’ early literacy and language skills with a state-approved screener.
These standardized assessments aren’t unique to this public preschool. An increasing number of children enrolled in public preschools nationwide must take them. In Minnesota, preschool students complete an early childhood screening within 90 days of starting. Prekindergarten students in New York are assessed on their development at baseline and throughout the year. South Carolina pre-K students take a readiness assessment.
This trend appears poised to spread, as it has in kindergarten. Currently, at least 27 states require school districts to administer a kindergarten entry assessment during the 2023–2024 school year.
In theory, early education assessments provide a number of benefits: They can gauge students’ baseline knowledge and skills, guide instruction, and steer kids toward their next academic steps. But early elementary teachers tasked with administering them paint a much more nuanced—and perhaps even critical—picture.
The timing of assessments can present a ‘Catch-22’ situation
Turner, like many early educators, administers one-on-one assessments to students at the beginning of the year.
“That’s where we get our baseline as to where the kids are. Based on that information, we use it to plan small groups and general activities,” he said. “For instance, if I notice that a lot of them are struggling with recognizing or generating patterns, then my math small groups may focus in on those areas.”
Turner points out the practicality of administering assessments early on, but also notes significant challenges.
All young students require time to adjust to a new classroom routine and procedures. For children with special needs, says Turner, any disruptions to routines can be magnified. “Students on the autism spectrum may not respond very well to change,” he said.
Yet for close to the entire first month of school, Turner conducts these initial assessments—in a separate room, one–on-one. His assistant teacher and a special education teacher remain in the primary classroom with the other students during this time.
Turner is by no means the only teacher concerned by early-in-the-year assessments. Kindergarten teachers from six states that require entry assessments described them as “time consuming” in a 2024 study by the U.S. Government Accountability Office. Teachers in each of the study’s six discussion groups also noted that administering individual student assessments early in the year adversely affects students’ ability to acclimate to school and classroom norms.
Assessments add to teachers’ overall responsibilities
Timing aside, even thoughtfully designed and developmentally appropriate assessments can be unpopular among teachers.
In Minnesota, public schools this coming school year will pilot the Minnesota Kindergarten Fall Assessment, which relies on educators observing students’ daily interactions in school—rather than one-on-one evaluations in front of a computer or with pencil and paper.
“We committed very clearly to wanting this to be a very developmentally-based investment. We wanted it to be authentic, meaning we were delivering it through observations, through normal classroom routines,” Danielle Hayden, director of early education for the Minnesota department of education, told Education Week.
However, teachers must still record their observations for each student. And it’s unclear how long the assessment, which addresses 16 items across four domains of learning, will take.
When the Minnesota department of education posted news of the pending assessment on social media, several comments from teachers poured in, many of them indicating wariness.
One online commenter said: “Oh good grief. Another assessment. Can’t we just take a few weeks to get to know the kids without a checklist to complete. We already have to do FAST assessment, and on their iPads they do a very long HMH (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt) growth measure and i-Ready assessment. English language learners get another assessment. Enough is enough.”
Another commenter remarked, “Even the most amazing, experienced teacher should not get expected to add just one more thing...” to their plate.
A potential source of stress for teachers and students
As these remarks suggest, assessments can add to teachers’ day-to-day stress levels as they attempt to balance daily classroom responsibilities. When tied to teacher evaluations, they may present another source of anxiety.
“There are instances where they [administrators] look at the scores, and if they see that the children haven’t made much progress during the year, that can impact an educator’s evaluation,” Turner said.
But the progress, or lack of it, may not tell the whole story. A range of factors, such as an undiagnosed disability or major changes at home, could impede a student’s progress over the school year, Turner explained. And some students simply don’t test well.
That’s why Turner aims to make assessments as stress-free as possible for his students. “I never tell them, ‘OK, you’re going to take your test.’ I always tell them, ‘We’re going to do an activity, or play a game together,’” he said. “I try and make it fun to take away some of that anxiety that comes with standardized testing.”
