JACKSON, Miss. (WJTV) – On Thursday, the Mississippi Department of Education (MDE) released the Kindergarten Readiness Assessment (KRA) results for the 2023-24 school year. According to MDE, the results showed students’ gains during the past year have them coming closer to reaching pre-pandemic achievement levels.

Kindergarteners and pre-K students take a Kindergarten Readiness Assessment in the fall and spring of each school year. When the 2023-24 kindergarteners were retested in spring 2024, officials said 63.8% met the end-of-year target score, an increase from 61.4% in spring 2023. Before the pandemic in spring 2019, 65.6% of kindergartners met the target score.

“Mississippi’s early childhood educators continue to improve achievement among our kindergarten and pre-K students,” said Dr. Lance Evans, state superintendent of education. “The MDE expects this upward trend to continue as we implement strategies and enhance our support for teachers statewide.”

For pre-K students in MDE’s Early Learning Collaboratives (ELC), officials said 67.2% met the end-of-year target score in spring 2024, compared to 64.8% in spring 2023. Before the pandemic in spring 2019, 76.9% of ELC pre-K students met the target score. For pre-K students in other public pre-K programs, 60.8% met the end-of-year target score in spring 2024, compared to 64.5% in spring 2023 and 69.3% in spring 2019.

For the first time, the KRA Update includes results from the State Invested Pre-K (SIP) programs, which began in August 2023. The SIP program expanded MDE’s offering of high-quality pre-K programs and was created after the Mississippi Legislature in 2022 appropriated $20 million in new state funding to provide grants to public schools not participating in an ELC. Results show 64.2% of SIP pre-K students met the target score in spring 2024.   

Total students tested were 32,736 in kindergarten, 6,193 in ELCs, 891 in SIPs, and 3,999 in other pre-K programs.