First look at COVID’s educational impact on Virginia’s kindergarteners is ‘alarming’

Virginia’s kindergartners lost academic and social skills between entering kindergarten last fall and finishing the school year this spring, new state data shows.

The spring Virginia Kindergarten Readiness Program assessment is the first look into how a year of pandemic-era learning affected Virginia’s kindergartners. The results are bleak.

Less than half of kindergarten students statewide met the benchmarks for school readiness as defined by the Virginia Department of Education. In Henrico County, just over half of students met the criteria for school readiness.

Despite this spring’s grim outcomes, there will be greater challenges to come, said Jenna Conway, chief school readiness officer of the VDOE.

The students found in need of the most supports at the end of the school year this spring were disproportionately students of color, English Language Learners, students with disabilities, and students from low-income families. About 75% of children who were identified as having a disability fell below the state's benchmark, along with 70% of English Language Learners, 68% of Hispanic children, 67% of children from low-income backgrounds and 65% of Black children.

Experts worry that the knock-on effects of the pandemic will widen already existing gaps in opportunities and supports.

“When we historically look at VRP data, we see that children from disadvantaged or under-resourced communities who are not able to access any preschool experience tend to have the lowest readiness rates,” Conway said. “Knowing that and knowing that we had historic drops in enrollment in preschool… I think it sets us up for some real challenges coming into kindergarten this year, and just an incredible range in kids in their experiences and skills.”

In the fall, 45% of students fell below the benchmark in one or more foundational areas of learning assessed by the VKRP. This spring, that percentage rose to 52%, according to data provided by the VDOE. Henrico County fared slightly better than the state as a whole this spring, with 51% of its kindergarteners scoring below benchmark in at least one category.

“What we're seeing is very alarming,” said Rich Shultz, president of Smart Beginnings Greater Richmond, a nonprofit coalition focused on early childhood education. “But unfortunately, it's what we expected to see... We knew kids were going to fall even more behind.”

About 84% of kindergartners statewide started the school year in virtual school. In Henrico County, the school division offered "predominantly virtual learning" at the start of the year with a few exceptions. As the year progressed, Henrico County Public Schools gradually expanded its in-person schooling.

"Virtual is just not the way kids are going to learn at this age," Schultz said. "They learn through social interactions; they learn through play."

The VKRP, which is funded by the General Assembly, scores kindergartners through assessments on literacy, math, behavioral and social skills.

The Phonological Awareness Literacy Screening, or PALS, assessment shows a 5% point increase of students identified as high-risk for reading difficulties from fall 2020 to spring 2021 .

Statewide this spring, 32% of the 67,928 children tested fell below the literacy benchmark. In Henrico, about 35% of the county’s 3,093 kindergartners who were tested fell below the benchmark.

The VKRP assessments are designed to give a snapshot of students’ skills to provide educators with information about students’ abilities. The scores aren’t tied to any consequences for teachers or preschool providers.

Virginia lags behind many other states in the implementation of kindergarten entry assessments.

Because VKRP is so new, there’s no baseline for the spring scores. The VKRP was initiated in 2013 by Elevate Early Education, an issue-advocacy organization. Some school divisions voluntarily participated.

Then in late 2017, a legislative study led state officials to realize that there was a need for better information about children's kindergarten readiness. The VKRP was mandated by the Virginia General Assembly in 2018 to reach full statewide implementation by the 2019-20 school year. There was no spring assessment in 2020 because it coincided with the onset of the pandemic.

Starting this school year, the assessment will be available to all publicly funded preschool programs.

“We'll see how it works in the early childhood space, and then we'll work with the legislators if they think it's important to have it in all settings,” Conway said. “That might be down the road.”

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Anna Bryson is the Henrico Citizen’s education reporter and a Report for America corps member. Make a tax-deductible donation to support her work, and RFA will match it dollar for dollar.