Multi-LEA Collaboration on Kindergarten Readiness

FLAGSTAFF (November 17, 2017)

Mountain School, PEAK School and the Flagstaff Unified School District (FUSD) collaborated on a multi-LEA (Local Education Agency) application for partnership with the Arizona Department of Education (ADE) to receive support for implementation support the Kindergarten Developmental Inventory (KDI) / K-3 Formative Assessment.  The application was filed with the ADE on November 14, 2017, two days ahead of the application deadline.

The goal of this collaboration is to establish a consistent and reliable method for assessing community-wide student readiness for school and to better address individual student needs.  Through this collaboration, over 185 students will be served across five elementary schools: Mountain, PEAK, Sechrist, Marshall, and Killip.   In addition, nearly 30 teachers and school administrators will participate in training and professional development over 18-months beginning in January 2018, if the application is approved by the ADE.

Additional partners in this first of its kind collaboration include Northern Arizona University’s College of Education and the Coconino County Educational Service Agency.

Initially, the team plans to focus exclusively on kindergarten with ongoing communication between those preschools already utilizing Teaching Strategies GOLD – the preschool teaching tool that is aligned with the KDI.  Plans for expansion into first through third grades will be determined at a later date based on the results of this pilot.