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    Assessment and Accountability

    ​​​Kindergarten Entry Inventory

    Pennsylvania's Kindergarten Entry Inventory (KEI) is a reliable reporting tool available at no cost to schools. The Kindergarten Entry Inventory offers teachers an instructional strategy for understanding and tracking students' proficiency across both cognitive and non-cognitive domains at kindergarten entry. The Kindergarten Entry Inventory is aligned to the Pennsylvania Early Learning Standards and Pennsylvania Core, and therefore it complements and can help improve existing assessments and teaching practices.

    Pennsylvania Early Learning Standards
    Pennsylvania Core

    The Kindergarten Entry Inventory is not intended as a high stakes assessment for comparison among early childhood programs, of teacher effectiveness, or as a high stakes assessment of children.

    Kindergarten Entry Inventory Introduction Video (YouTube)

    By Using the Kindergarten Entry Inventory:

    • Teachers have a comprehensive understanding of children's skills as they enter their classroom. They can use this information to refine teaching practices and curriculum to meet the individual needs of their students so that students have the greatest opportunity for success.
    • Families can become more engaged in their children's kindergarten experience when they know more about their children's skills early in the year and can reinforce skills building at home. Children whose parents are involved in their child's education are more likely to succeed.
    • Teachers, principals and school administrators can focus training, professional development and resources in areas that will support student achievement.
    • Schools and early childhood programs can evaluate aggregate data to align expectations, curriculum, professional development and family involvement to best prepare students for kindergarten.
    • State policymakers can use aggregate longitudinal child outcome information to ensure that the state's educational system supports teachers, families and communities to maximize student achievement.

    Central Susquehanna Intermediate Unit in partnership with the Office of Child Development and Early Learning provides a Kindergarten Entry Inventory landing page that can be accessed at https://www.kei-pa.org. All materials including the Inventory, asynchronous professional development, proficient user assignment (log in required) , resources, KEI data entry system (log in required) , and data system training snippets are housed on the landing page.

    Registration

    In order to implement the Kindergarten Entry Inventory, a Kindergarten Entry Inventory Point of Contact (KEI-POC) is required. The KEI-POC will act as the liaison between local education agency (LEA) administrative staff, implementing kindergarten teachers, and OCDEL and data systems staff. Having a dedicated KEI-POC will ensure that effective communication and implementation occurs throughout the KEI process. 

    Please send the KEI-POC name, email address and phone number to RA-PWOCDELKEI@pa.gov.

    Repo​​​rts

    ​PA KEI Validation Study​ (PDF)

    More information can be found by visiting www.kei-pa.org

    review image caption Image Caption: Building a Culture of Quality: Improved Student Achievement; March-September: The school district's designated point of contact registers administrators and teachers with the Office of Child Development and Early Learning. March-September: Teacher professional development, proficiency determination and support is provided. March-September: Teachers become familiar with the Kindergarten Entry Inventory tool and its 30 standards-based indicators to more easily integrate observation of children's skills into daily instruction. August-November: Teachers observe children's skills in the first 45 calendar days of kindergarten. They may use other assessments like DIBELs and input from families and other specialists working with children to inform their determination of skill level. October-December: Sixty calendar days from the start of school teachers finalize skill level determination for each child in a web-based system based on observations of the child's skills as "not yet evident", "emerging," "evident," "exceeds," or "unable to determine skill level." Accommodations are expected for children who are English language learners or who have special needs. Average data entry time is 15 minutes per child. August-December: Upon data entry, teachers access student and class profiles on-demand to inform parent-teacher conferences and curriculum planning. October-December: District and building level reports available after outcomes are finalized. Raw data files are available to implementing districts.