Faculty, In response to the requirements of the Race to the Top-Early Learning Challenge Grant and a mandate from the North Carolina (NC) State Legislature requiring the development of a kindergarten entry assessment, NC Superintendent June Atkinson organized a K-3 Assessment Think Tank in February of 2013. That group, which included K-3 teachers, administrators, parents, early childhood education scholars, and policymakers, were tasked with researching a plan for developing effective, developmentally appropriate, student-centered assessments to improve early childhood learning and instruction in NC public schools. Their final report (K-3 Assessment Think Tank, 2013) was heavily influenced by prior research on the effectiveness of formative assessment on student learning outcomes (Black and William, 1998; William and Thompson, 2007), and recommended the development of a K-3 formative assessment designed to help teachers individualize their instruction. The report further identified six domains of learning the assessment should cover: approaches to learning, cognitive development, socioemotional development, health and physical development, language development, and communication. Based on the recommendations of the K-3 Assessment Think Tank, an assessment design team consisting of current and former educators and early childhood education scholars developed a kindergarten entry formative assessment (KEA) which was piloted in 193 classrooms during the first 60 instructional days of the 2014-2015 academic year. NC intended the pilot to be a first step toward scaling-up to a full statewide K-3 formative assessment process.
