What do children learn in preschool and kindergarten? Maryland decided to find out by implementing a kindergarten readiness assessment tool.

“More than a decade ago, Maryland became among the first states to administer a comprehensive test of skills at the academic starting line,” according to a recent Washington Post article.

To do its assessments, the state uses the Maryland Model for School Readiness (MMSR).

“In 1995, the state Department of Education began developing a model system to evaluate and support children’s learning in kindergarten,” according to “A Look at Maryland’s Early Data System,” a report from the National Conference of State Legislatures. The state “used the commercially available Work Sampling System (WSS) to align child developmental evaluation with curriculum, learning standards and instruction. The program began as a pilot in 1997 in seven school districts.”

“The MMSR is not a ‘test,’ but a set of systematic, carefully-defined daily observations, work samples, and age-appropriate guidelines by which a teacher assesses the skills of each entering kindergartener,” the Department of Education explains in the 2010-2011 Maryland School Readiness Report.

“Under the MMSR system, all children entering kindergarten are assessed for level of mastery,” according to the Maryland State Department of Education website.

It is an “assessment and instructional system designed to provide parents, teachers and early childhood providers with a common understanding of what children know and are able to do upon entering school,” the website notes.

The MMSR indicates three levels of school readiness: fully ready, approaching readiness and developing readiness.

Students are assessed in seven learning domains: language and literacy; social and personal skills such as self-control; mathematical thinking; scientific thinking; social studies, including awareness of communities and the need for rules and laws; the arts; and physical development and health.

“MMSR incorporates research-based instruction, age-appropriate assessment of children’s learning, and effective communication among teachers, parents and early childhood providers. Teachers and providers receive on-going professional development to implement these practices,” the state’s website says.

Today, the observational nature of early assessments means that children often don’t realize when they are being assessed. As the Washington Post article explains:

“At Summit Hall Elementary School in Gaithersburg, kindergartners learn math by looking for patterns in stories, making patterns with Froot Loops and crayons, and jump-jump-hopping on a classroom rug,” the Post says.

The article notes, “less than half of students arrive at school having attended a formal pre-kindergarten program. Some have no preschool experience, while others have just moved here from another country.”

“As they worked and played on a September morning, their teachers carefully recorded observations in notebooks and on laptops of who volunteered answers and how they penciled in their wobbly names. The children had no idea that these animated lessons were actually part of the first standardized state test of their academic careers.”

The article adds, “the teachers’ cumulative thoughts and impressions will form part of a kindergarten assessment in Maryland to show how prepared the students are for school.”

The results of the assessment process “have helped inform policy decisions in Maryland over the past decade that led to universal full-day kindergarten and publicly funded pre-kindergarten available for all children from low-income families,” the Post says in this article.

Among the results during the 2012-2013 year, according to the Post:

– “In Montgomery County, 80 percent of all kindergartners are school-ready, up from 61 percent in 2001-2002.”

– “In Prince George’s County, 73 percent of all kindergartners are school-ready, up from 36 percent in 2001-2002.”

– “Statewide, 82 percent kindergartners are school-ready, up from 49 percent in 2001-2002.”

As Sue Hankin, a Summit Hall kindergarten teacher, told the Post, the readiness test helps teachers understand where students are and what instruction they need.