Guilford County Schools is partnering with local nonprofit Ready for School, Ready for Life, to track the preparedness of students entering the classroom.
The organizations are implementing a research-based tool called the Early Development Instrument.
It measures how young children are growing in areas like language, social competence, physical health and emotional maturity.
Ready for School, Ready for Life Chief Operating Officer Jacqueline McCracken said, while individual children’s data is confidential, the community will be able to see geographic trends and respond accordingly.
“Let's say literacy and language was coming up in a particular number of census tracts as underdeveloped," McCracken said. "That allows us to work with funders and community providers to figure out how we better allocate resources so that we can clear that equity difference.”
Kindergarten teachers in the district evaluated each of their students using the new tool earlier this year. The results will be available in the fall.