Escambia's kindergarten readiness improving, but 'not at the pace we want'

Escambia County showed a slight gain in the percentage of children who are "ready for kindergarten," while Santa Rosa County took a slight dip, according to a new report from the Florida Department of Education.

Kindergarten students are administered an assessment test within their first 30 days of school to gauge their grasp of the alphabet, phonics, vocabulary and other skills.

Kindergartners who score a 500 or better on the assessment are considered kindergarten ready. In 2019, 47% of Escambia County students were kindergarten ready, up from 45% in 2018. In Santa Rosa County, 57% percent of students hit the target score in 2019, down from 60% in 2018. The state's average readiness rate is 53% for both 2018 and 2019.

Explaining why the school readiness metric is important, Kimberly Krupa, executive director of Achieve Escambia, said, "this is really a temperature check on how well we're doing in the prenatal to around 5 years old stage. This is a temperature check of how families are doing and how we as a community are doing in raising our kids."

RuthieFebruary 21, 2020