Press Room
Maryland General Assembly Changes Kindergarten Readiness Assessment to a Sampling Test
Change Will Restore Time to Learn for Kindergarten Classes
On April 11, the House and Senate chambers reconciled minor differences in conference committee and passed important testing-reduction legislation to change the Kindergarten Readiness Assessment (KRA) into a sampling test—which means it will only be taken by a representative group of students instead of every child. Last fall, the highly disruptive and instructionally unhelpful test took 45 minutes per students and roughly 15 hours per class.
MSEA President Betty Weller released the following statement:
“This is exactly what happens when legislators listen to the perspective of experts in schools. Due to the KRA, students lost out on instruction time during perhaps the most crucial learning period in their school experience—when they should be forming important learning habits and learning to play well with others. This bill will restore time for thousands of our youngest learners to play, learn, and develop a love for school.
“Educators thank our elected officials in the General Assembly for respecting our perspectives and listening to our calls for action. This will make a real difference to thousands of children by improving the quality of their earliest instruction.”