The Kindergarten Assessment Support (KAS) Initiative was originally created to support Local Education Agencies (LEAs) with the implementation of House Bill 3 and the adoption of a Commissioner-approved Kindergarten Literacy Screener tool. As the need arose, the scope of work expanded to include other statewide initiatives concerning early childhood assessments, Prekindergarten through Second Grade. Therefore, the team has rebranded and will be moving to the utilization of the Early Childhood Assessment Support (ECAS) name to ensure that we accurately reflect the support and services we provide. We are excited to continue supporting stakeholders with early childhood assessments across Texas, as well as providing a variety of trainings and projects in the future. Please revisit our website as we release new updates and opportunities regularly.
Thank you!
The ECAS Team
In Spring 2023, the Kindergarten Assessment Support (KAS) Initiative will partner with the Texas Education Agency (TEA) and interested Educational Service Centers (ESCs) to create modules focused on Data-Driven Instruction (DDI) Best Practices based on the two Commissioner-approved Kindergarten Literacy Screeners, TX-KEA by the Children’s Learning Institute (CLI) and mCLASS Texas by Amplify. The goal of these modules is to:
Create awareness of assessment requirements and tool selection/adoption
Support implementation of assessments with fidelity
Support use of data to drive instruction
Support data submission
These modules will remain available to Local Education Agencies (LEAs) via the Data-Driven Instruction Best Practices webpage on tea.texas.gov and the kasgrant.net website. The KAS team will partner with ESC specialists from across Texas to create the DDI Best Practices modules. The goal of these modules is to create a library of resources that align to the KAS grant goals and that will continue to be available for access once the grant ends.
Live sessions are now open for registration. For a list of topics and dates, please visit the link and register.
For more information about this project, please visit the Project and Services page.
The KAS Initiative has partnered with the Children’s Learning Institute’s (CLI) Education Advisement (EA) Team to launch the TX-KEA Toolkit for ESC Specialists. This online toolkit has been curated to meet the needs of ECE specialists (an early childhood professional who provides coaching, mentoring and/or training, to support practitioners and other professionals in continuous quality improvement efforts) who support their regions. This “one stop shop” offers specialists the ability to locate a variety of materials and resources, each tailored to support specialist’s understanding and implementation of TX-KEA.
Please visit the TX-KEA Toolkit page on the CLI Engage platform for more information and to access the resources. The CLI EA Team has also created a toolkit overview video to share about the resources of the toolkit.
For more information about this project, please visit the Project and Services page.
The Texas Education Agency (TEA) has partnered with the Region 4 Education Service Center (ESC) to provide additional support of the mandated Kindergarten beginning-of-year literacy screener through a Kindergarten Assessment Support grant, which is known as the KAS Initiative. The two Commissioner-approved screeners supported by the grant include mCLASS Texas by Amplify and Texas Kindergarten Entry Assessment (TX-KEA) by Children’s Learning Institute (CLI).
The purpose of the grant is not to replace current services provided by Education Service Centers or assessment vendors, but rather to find other areas that would assist Local Education Agencies (LEAs) in Texas with successful implementation of a Kindergarten Assessment tool. This initiative was created as a result of House Bill 3 to support districts and open-enrollment charters with the grant project goals:
This website will provide upcoming services related to the KAS Initiative. All services included on the site are grant-funded and free to all Texas stakeholders that are a part of a LEA or Regional ESC.
To support any questions or concerns regarding the Kindergarten Literacy Screeners, you can schedule a one-on-one meeting with a member of the KAS Team at your convenience.
You can sign up with this Registration Link.
In addition to Office Hours, support is also offered for topics related to the commissioner-approved Kindergarten Assessments, for topics that fall under the grant goals, or questions regarding KAS Initiative activities. Please contact the KAS Team directly.
Lila Dahbura Situ
Statewide Contact, KAS and ECAS Program Manager
lila.situ@esc4.net
Megan Farrar
Statewide Contact and KAS Specialist
megan.farrar@esc4.net
Victoria Moss M.Ed.
Statewide Contact and ECAS Specialist victoria.moss@esc4.net