More than 90,000 children enter kindergarten each year in Virginia. All of these children, regardless of background or zip code, enter through school doors, often with new backpacks and supplies, excited to learn, interact with teachers, and make new friends. All are capable of entering kindergarten ready, yet too many do not know their letters, numbers, nor how to successfully interact in a classroom setting.

The Virginia Kindergarten Readiness Program (VKRP) is an initiative focused on building a more comprehensive understanding of school readiness and success in Virginia. As an assessment system of children’s early learning skills, VKRP adds screening measures of mathematics, self-regulation, and social skills to complement Virginia's statewide assessment of literacy skills through PALS. VKRP is designed to provide detailed, actionable information to guide decisions at various levels before and after kindergarten entry to support student learning.

This report provides a status update on VKRP and summarizes the VKRP data from the fall of 2018. Readiness data in fall 2018 was gathered from 86 divisions—419 schools, 1,691 classrooms, and 31,091 kindergarten students representing ~34% of the population of public kindergarten students in Virginia.