Focus Group Notes - Teachers, 04/19/2014
Participant Information:
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3 individuals attending this focus group in Houston, TX. The 3 participants had pre-kindergarten,
kindergarten, and bilingual education experience.
Focus Group Questions
What KEA tools do you currently use?
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TPRI, CPALLS, Phonemic Awareness Phonics Inventory (PAPI; developed by school district),
Kindergarten Inventory (measures letter knowledge, math, and name writing)
What do you like and dislike about current tools?
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Would like to know about:
o Preschool experience
o Home living situation (foster, child, homeless, etc.)
o Social and emotional development
 Social emotional needs are so important for bilingual and children with special
needs
o More information about their language skills and vocabulary - not just knowing letters
Important that KEAs are used to inform instruction
What are your thoughts on conducting KEAs on computers and tablets?
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Okay to use computers and tablets, BUT not all families have technology at home, thus children
will have different comfort levels with technology, which may affect their ability to take
computer-based assessment
Paper and pencil tests are still important, especially to assess children’s writing skills
What is your technology preference?
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No preference, depends on which is best for the goal
What technology is available now?
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Varies by classroom; some classrooms have touchscreens, and some classrooms in the same
school does not
How do you typically assess children?
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One-on-one assessments, while other children are in center time or have additional staff
support for the other children
o Allows teacher to assess child’s behavior
Need to consider the cultural ramifications of one-on-one testing (bad: “am I in trouble?” or
good: “when can I be alone with the teacher again?”)
Never call KEA a test, but call the testing time “games” so it isn't scary for the children
Focus Group Notes - Teachers, 04/19/2014
How would you use TX-KEA to plan for instruction?
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For ability grouping and planning lessons
Conversations with parents about developmental domains (global conversation)
What are your thoughts on the administration time (i.e., 45 minutes) for each student?
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45 minutes is appropriate
Like that do not have to administer in one sitting and that there are teacher observations that
can be completed when students are not present
Should be completed by end of 1st 6 weeks
What type of training would you like in regards to implementation and interpretation of TX-KEA?
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Training for standardizes administration because there’s concern about teacher bias
Use video examples in online training
Like face-to-face trainings, which allow teachers to practice assessment on each other for handson learning
What concerns do you have in reference to students with special needs?
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Most children with special needs may not be able to complete the assessment, may not provide
any new information
Use the assessment as an early warning sign, and how teachers can have conversations with
parents
What concerns you the most about TX-KEA?
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Teachers may feel that it’s just additional paperwork because the paperwork can be
overwhelming
Helpful to do only one assessment, this is the assessment to do in place of all others
Will districts even do it? How can we sell it to all districts (especially the Title I schools)? How do
we convince districts that this is helpful to the teachers?
Need to market to teachers, parents, school districts, and teacher education programs
What are you most excited about in regards to TX-KEA?
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Multi- dimensionality, thoroughness, usefulness, standardization
Help districts, schools, teachers know where the children are at
Being able to tell parents that this is where we want your child to be, these are skills we need to
work on
Like that social emotional and physical will be included as well
Give information to look at schools objectively, if children come in with different experiences
(have realistic expectations on progress for the schools and districts, especially child progress)
Focus Group Notes - Teachers, 04/19/2014
Parent Report:
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Be aware that there may be parent anxiety surrounding not just the child, but how the parent
will feel about how they did as a parent; therefore, there needs to be parent education about
TX-KEA (maybe a website)
This may be the first contact between the parent and the school district
Concerned about at-risk parents level of engagement, but also well-educated parents because
they will drill their parents to do well on the test
Need to convey that “your child is in good hands, and this test will help us help them”
Don’t want to call TX-KEA a test, especially with parents
Need good marketing
Should focus on how this test will help inform instruction for teachers, help them provide the
best instruction for each child in the class
Miscellaneous Comments:
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Need to conduct focus groups for: parents, school administrators, and possibly pre-kindergarten
teachers
Some of these assessments could be done before school, maybe when the child is
registering/enrolling to help the school group children into classrooms and hit the ground
running
Can the assessment be used as a precursor to K? Can it be conducted at the end of pre-k? Many
pre-k teachers would like to use this as an end-of-year screening
Discussion about TX-KEA Domains
Oral Language Domain:
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In a 45 minute assessment, how much time should be spent on this domain?
o 5 – 10 minutes; 6 – 8 minutes; 10 minutes (this portion of test could build rapport)
How important is this domain?
o Very important; allows teacher to know a base of children’s language
How important is the content in the domain?
o Very good coverage of content; be considerate of use bias due to standard English when
evaluating minority students
o Maybe consider something that allows open-ended responses if can be easily scored
Literacy Domain:
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In a 45 minute assessment, how much time should be spent on this domain?
o 10 – 12 minutes; 10 minutes
How important is this domain?
o Extremely important, and the STAAR test mainly focuses on reading ability
o Not important for KEA because an entry test; spend less time on this, but do not drop
from the test
Focus Group Notes - Teachers, 04/19/2014
o
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Tell you if they've had a preschool or home experience with books, which will help
teacher to plan instruction around that
How important is the content in the domain? What would you add?
o Some items seems very advanced for K, will it be so advanced that it sends the wrong
message
 Subtests seem to be going deep; will that be discouraging or overwhelming?
o Should have options for children to write with different writing tools
o Be able to check if they are writing the letters or drawing the letters
o Note hand dominance
o Phonological Awareness VERY important
o Like that there’s a focus on writing because it gets lost in early literacy/literacy
assessments
Cognitive Domain:
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In a 45 minute assessment, how much time should be spent on this domain?
o 10 – 12 minutes; 3 – 5 minutes (just focus on counting, recognizing numerals); 10
minutes
How important is this domain?
o Extremely important
o Problem solving is an important skill as they move on, the sooner they learn it the better
they will be
o Like how it is aligned with Pre-K guidelines
How important is the content in the domain?
o Patterning is important because it is being dropped from Kindergarten TEK
o 3-D solids, addition, and subtraction are K TEKs, so may not be important in early
Kindergarten
o Love “Math in the Real World” in general, but especially how there’s a focus on math
language
o Can leave out the geometry content, except for shapes
Concerns:
o How will we measure science and engineering skills?
o How will science and engineering items inform/guide instruction?
o Term “Cognition” may be misleading because it could be interpreted as a chance to
screen for impaired abilities
Approaches to Learning Domain:
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In a 45 minute assessment, how much time should be spent on this domain?
o Like that it’s a teacher report so can teachers can take as much time as needed with
each child
How important is this domain?
o Important for school success, but not that important for kindergarten readiness
o Not useful for ability grouping, but can tell you about your population, make sure the
child is being challenged, a way to screen for at risk students
Focus Group Notes - Teachers, 04/19/2014
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How important is the content in the domain?
o Content is good to know how to approach lessons with students
Concern: may be too subjective
Physical Well-being Domain:
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In a 45 minute assessment, how much time should be spent on this domain?
o 5 – 7 minutes; 5 – 8 minutes
How important is this domain?
o Important
o Health status is particularly important; how important hygiene and caring can be for
their brainpower, now ready for the day and happy to be there
o Will help teachers be ore consciously aware of how health can impact academic
How important is the content in the domain?
o Vision and hearing should be added because it needs to be checked early
o Nutrition and hand washing not important for KEA
o Focus on cross-body movement, climb stairs and cutting
Concerns:
o Not sure how the assessment can evaluate this without being judgmental, especially
with the parent reports
o Need to be cognizant of feelings, not judging or demeaning for the family
Social and Emotional Domain:
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In a 45 minute assessment, how much time should be spent on this domain?
o 10 – 15 minutes
How important is this domain?
o Most important domain
How important is the content in the domain?
o Self-regulation the most important sub-test, then emotional understanding, and then
social competence
Concerns:
o How objectives can teachers be for the teacher report measures; can they keep their
personal feelings about the child out of the ratings
Rank order of Domain Importance
Oral Language
Literacy
Cognition
Approaches to Learning
Physical Well-being
Social and Emotional
Participant 1
4
6
5
3
1
2
Participant 2
4
5
6
3
2
1
Participant 3
4
6
5
3
2
1