2023 Early Childhood Readiness Data
The Spartanburg Academic Movement released Spartanburg County’s latest school readiness data during a recent breakfast.
SAM uses the Early Development Instrument (EDI), a population measure of how young children are developing, to measure five areas of early childhood development: physical health and well-being, social competence, emotional maturity, language and cognitive skills, communication skills and general knowledge. The EDI shows how children are developing and can serve as a predictor for health, education and social outcomes.
This year’s EDI data shows a slight (1 percent) decline in overall readiness from 49 percent in 2021 to 48 percent in 2023. No EDI was performed in 2022. This is the third full iteration of EDI administration in Spartanburg County. The EDI is administered by kindergarten teachers in all districts, along with Spartanburg Preparatory School, by completing a questionnaire about every kindergarten student.
SAM Chief Impact Officer Beth Thompson said the slight decline in this year’s measurement isn’t surprising considering the challenges the pandemic imposed on early care and educational systems. This year’s kindergartners were about 3 years old at the start of the pandemic, so it’s likely we will continue to see a decline in school readiness over the next couple of years as children who were even younger could have experienced greater challenges, Thompson said.
The greatest declines in readiness, although very small percentage changes, were in the areas of social competence and emotional maturity, which shows the potential impact of social isolation, childcare center shutdowns and other challenges families faced during the shutdown.
Thompson said the data derived from EDI is especially designed to be used by the community to improve outcomes for children. SAM will continue to analyze this year’s data over the course of the next few months to determine specific changes within census subpopulations, neighborhoods, and insights into specific developmental areas of most concern.
“When we started EDI, the goal was to be able to use the data in a way that we could make improvements and deploy resources to underserved communities,” Thompson said. “We’re able to take these widely shared goals and make them available to the community and show how access to quality early care and education makes a true difference in the lives of children. Because children’s development and ultimately readiness for success in school is directly influenced by their experiences from birth to five years of age, when brain development is at its peak, it is essential that all components of the early care and education systems continuously evolve to improve this outcome.”
SAM released the 2023 EDI data in conjunction with a pilot study involving public and private 4K students who had classroom instruction, curated lessons and parent curriculum centered on a colorful giraffe named Annabelle and her colorful friends.
The pilot results showed students improved in ordering, retelling, and counting after the pilot study, which is expected to be offered statewide during the 2023/23 year and could be expanded to higher grades.
Annabelle and her friends were created by Duncan author Rhonda Atkins Leonard for a series of four children’s books. A $900,000 Innovation Grant through the S.C. Department of Education funded a companion series of 10 short videos for SC Educational Television and a Spartanburg educator developed 10 lesson plans for teachers to use in their classrooms based on state Early Learning Standards and the SC Profile of the Ready Kindergartners. Each student received a book to take home and share with their families.
In all, 29 classrooms in Spartanburg School Districts 2, 3, 5 and 7, and private childcare centers in the Inman, Landrum and Campobello area participated.