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VPK Assessment

Historical Background | VPK Assessment Updates | New Florida Voluntary Prekindergarten (VPK) Assessment | VPK Assessment Data and Online Reporting System

Historical Background

Florida has made substantial progress in meeting its goal that all children should be performing at or above grade level in reading and mathematics by the end of third grade. To meet the goal of 100% literacy and numeracy, we must strengthen our foundational programs in reading and mathematics provided to children during their “first five years of formal schooling;” beginning with VPK through third grade. In order to focus on these “first five years of formal schooling,” in 2008, the Department of Education created a “Next Generation” initiative called Bright Beginnings. The Bright Beginnings initiative builds upon the “lessons learned” from response to instruction/intervention models, such as Reading First, that provide high quality initial instruction and appropriate interventions for struggling students. The development of The Florida VPK Assessment is one product of the Bright Beginnings initiative.

In 2008, the Department of Education awarded a grant to the Florida Center for Reading Research, Florida State University for the purpose of creating these measures. The Florida VPK Assessment was designed to:

  • reflect current research on emergent literacy and numeracy
  • align with the VPK Education Standards and
  • provide teachers with valid and reliable feedback regarding children’s progress in attaining these specific skills so that teachers may use this information to customize instruction to meet the needs of each child.

Timeline and Statewide Implementation Plan

  • Timeline
    • A total of 180 public and non-public school VPK teachers from across the state, administered the VPK Assessment for AP1: October 3 – November 4, 2009
    • Public and non-public school VPK teachers engaged in the field test, were trained to administer the VPK Assessment for AP2: January 7 – 28, 2010
    • Assessment Period 2 (AP2): February 8-19, 2010
    • Assessment Period 3 (AP3): End of April, 2010
    • Preliminary Report of Field Test – Summer 2010
    • Finalize Assessment Items and Administration – Summer/Fall 2010
    • Statewide Implementation – Fall 2010
    • Continue Technical Analyses Related to Alignment with the Florida Assessments for Instruction in Reading (FAIR-K)
  • Statewide Implementation Plan - DOE is collaborating with early learning coalitions and school districts to guide implementation in the following areas:
    1. Awareness
    2. Production and Availability of VPK Assessment
    3. VPK Assessment Online Reporting System
    4. Development of Training for Administration, Scoring and Reporting Results
    5. Delivery of Training for Administration, Scoring and Reporting Results
    6. Ongoing Reporting of Statewide Implementation
  • Implementation Workgroup Members
  • Statewide Implementation Plan (PDF, 30KB)
  • Statewide Implementation Plan - March 2, 2010 (PDF, 30KB)
  • Statewide Implementation Plan - June 2, 2010 (PDF, 30KB)

VPK Assessment Updates

Florida Voluntary Prekindergarten (VPK) Assessment

The Florida Center for Reading Research has developed the Florida Voluntary Prekindergarten (VPK) Assessment, in collaboration with the Department of Education. The purpose of this assessment is to provide teachers with valid and reliable feedback regarding children's progress in attaining the skills in the VPK Education Standards, so that teachers may use this information to inform instructional decisions in the VPK classroom.

The VPK Assessment includes progress monitoring measures in the areas of Print Knowledge, Phonological Awareness, Mathematics, and Oral Language/Vocabulary that are aligned with the VPK Education Standards.

During the 2009-10 school year, the VPK Assessment measures were field tested across the state of Florida. The purpose of the field test was to determine the viability of the materials and to collect data to establish a sample that represented the state. In this case, the public and non-public school VPK teachers administered the VPK Assessment measures and provided feedback about the materials. The information gathered from the teachers was incorporated into the development of the final assessment materials and related professional development opportunities.

Print Knowledge Measure

Print Knowledge assesses the child’s ability to recognize letters or words, and his/her knowledge of letter names (both upper and lower case) and the sounds they make. The Print Knowledge measure includes a total of 12 assessment items and two practice items.

Phonological Awareness Measure

Phonological Awareness is the awareness and manipulation of the different sounds in a word. The Phonological Awareness measure assesses the child’s ability to:
  • Blend (put together) a word if it is broken up into smaller sounds or syllables
  • Blend a compound word
  • Recognize the remaining word when part of the stimulus word is taken away.

The Phonological Awareness measure includes a total of 14 assessment items and two practice items.

Mathematics Measure

The Mathematics measure assesses early numeracy skills across three different areas: counting skills, numerical relations skills, and arithmetic reasoning skills. The Mathematics measure includes a total of 13 assessment items.

Oral Language/Vocabulary Measure

The Oral Language/Vocabulary measure:
  • assesses a child’s expressive language and receptive language
  • targets the child’s knowledge of adjectives, verbs, verb tenses, prepositions, and nouns.

The Oral Language/Vocabulary measure includes a total of 22 assessment items in Assessment Period 1 and 23 assessment items in Assessment Periods 2 and 3.

The content for the three early literacy measures was decided by identifying the best predictors of later reading success. Print knowledge, phonological awareness, and oral language/vocabulary are the best predictors for conventional early reading ability. The content for the early mathematics measure was decided by identifying the best predictors of later mathematics success. Number sense is one of the best known informal predictors of formal mathematics ability. In addition, research demonstrates that all four skill areas (e.g., print knowledge, phonological awareness, mathematics, oral language/vocabulary) can benefit from targeted instruction during the preschool year.

VPK Assessment Data and Online Reporting System

The Department of Education, Office of Early Learning has developed the Florida VPK Assessment Online Reporting System to provide teachers with a user friendly tool to track children’s progress in attaining the skills in the VPK Education Standards, so that teachers may use this information to guide instructional decisions in the VPK classroom.

The VPK Assessment Online Reporting System is available to all registered providers free of charge. This system allows VPK teachers to enter each child’s assessment results and then analyze children’s data in order to plan lessons that meet the individual needs of all children.

The VPK Assessment Online Reporting System has the capacity to;

  • Create individual, classroom, and center level reports to track progress
  • Link the assessment data to instructional strategies and resources that are aligned with the VPK Education Standards
  • Create a letter to parents about their child’s performance on each assessment measure