So What Are the Kindergarten Screening Tests Looking At?

Where I work they evaluate the kids in the spring, we evaluate basic concepts (hot cold bigger, little, what do you with a .. book, cup, airplane, knife etc)and vocabulary and speech, following simple directions and fine motor and gross motor. The nurse screens vision and hearing and will let parents know if she's concerned. We try to balance the classes so teachers have a mix of high medium low kids (and sometimes we dont get a true picture of a very shy kid or a slow learner who has recevd lots of intervention) but it's no big deal. Some schools may recommend kids for Speech, OT, Basic skills help. In the Fall we evaluate recognizing letters, letter sounds, rhyming, recognizing first and last name, etc but it is more to have a record of what they already know to inform our teaching.

At ours, they have the kids go off and meet with a teacher, who conducts the test. They check for things like naming colors, writing their name (looking for proper use of upper and lower case letters) and numbers. They want to get a basic sense of where your child is academically, so one teacher doesn't end up with all of the kids who didn't have preschool, etc.

At our school they call it a kindergarten interview!
They just want to get a good sense of where each child is at, cognitively, socially, emotionally and physically.
They ask the kids to do things like write their name (if they can) draw a picture, point out/recite colors, letters and numbers, stuff like that.
It helps the teachers form well balanced classrooms. It's not like a placement test, and it's nothing to worry about :)

My DS is about to start preschool and jus completed his screening. Ours consisted of 4 stations. We met with the school nurse to dicuss health issues that might interfer with learning. We met with an audiologist to test the hearing, the speech therapist for that and then we actually met with his classroom teacher. There she asked him to write his name, count, indentify some shapes, letters and colors, she asked him his phone number. All the things that they are going to teach him in class. These screenings are really to get a better grasp of what each child can do before they get to school so they can place them properly. Some, like meeting with the speech or audiologist are to see if there might be problems that they can start to resolve before school starts or as it starts that would interfer with learning. Our schools also have a round-up but it isn't the same as the screenings. At our round-up they go and meet with the teachers and have a story and do a short activity while the parents meet with the principal and go over circulum other concerns. Good luck.

They do a screening in our system. Apparently they have to report numbers on the number of kids that meet the "readiness for kindergarten" guidelines, and the screening is done for that purpose. Even though they won't automatically tell us parents this, my aunt teaches kindergarten and said that her school system gives each new student a number, 1 to 5, to determine how ready they are, then they divide them up accordingly. she said it wouldn't be fair to give one teacher all the 1's, that are already writing and doing reading, and then another teacher all the 5's, those that don't know how to do anything, so they divide it so each has an even number of those kids. At round up, one of the teachers pulled my son aside to a little desk and asked him to play some games. She threw her pencil under the desk and asked if it was under the desk or above it. Asked him to write his name. Showed him some letters to see if he knew what they were. Gave him scissors and asked him to cut a line in some paper. I asked him how he did and got the standard answer, "he did fine." I wouldn't worry about it though.

I work in Kindergarten in the Virginia Beach area and we do an EDK test. They just changed it up a little this year so I'm not sure what they have added or taking away but in the past they have had: writing first and last name, recognizing upper and lower case letters, recognizing numbers 0-100, beginning letter sound recognizing, seeing how high they can count, seeing what words the can read in isolation, and reading words in a sentence, being given a number and being able to count out that many cubes. This is what i can remember. Don't worry if your son does not know all of this. Most kids do not. This is a way for the teachers to see where they are at and to see where they need to start. The teachers will also do other test with your child at the beginning of the year to help place them in groups. I know in Va Beach we do the EDK test at the beginning and at the end of the year so we can see what progress they have made. These test are usually giving one on one with the child so we can make sure they understand the directions and can preform their best. Good Luck, enjoy this year. Your son will have so much fun and will learn so much!

My son's school did screening in June and they used something called Gesell (sp?). A teacher took him into a classroom to do the screening and then met with me to talk about the results. He had to copy patterns by building what was in the picture which he really excelled at but then there was a part where he had to copy pictures of shapes and things. He did not do well with this part and I am still beyond angry at what or what didn't happen at preschool and why we were not informed better through his teacher evaluations. Anyway, I don't know what it means for placement or anything but I'm guessing my son will end up with some OT once he starts in the Fall. As part of the Kindergarten screening he also was evaluated by the speech therapist and the school nurse (hearing, seeing & weight/height). I did not know any of that last part would be happening that day. I am finding the whole Kindergarten thing stressful as I feel like they don't tell you a lot and so much seem shrouded in mystery.

At my daughter's school interview, they did a test on her. (I can't remember the name but it started with a B). Counting as high as they could, copying shapes, write your name, phone number, address, letter identification, draw a person, balance, walk with one foot in front of the other, etc.

I think this helps determine which class the child will be in so that most of the kids are about the same level so you don't have the advanced students bored because some of their peers aren't even close to the same level.

My oldest will start school this year. Already got his teacher and schedule. At this school they do a 15 min "interview" to see if any kid needs to be in thier EDK program (extended day kindergarten). Where they would get a little extra help. Does your school have this program?? I'm pretty sure its so they can get a preview on where each child is and able to do their curriculum around the children in the class. Congrats to your lil guy. :)