More than half the states and the District of Columbia now require children to take kindergarten-entrance assessments, a trend that continues to grow, the Denver-based Education Commission of the States reports.
Such exams aim to gauge pupils’ abilities in language and literacy development, cognition and general knowledge, motor skills, and social and emotional development, the ECS says in a 50-state analysis of kindergarten policies released last month.
In 2013, four states—Iowa, Nevada, Oregon, and Wisconsin—began requiring kindergarten-entrance assessments