Important Context:

The graphs below provide information on kindergarten readiness as measured by New Mexico’s Early Childhood Observation Tool (ECOT). The assessment is used in both New Mexico PreK and at the beginning of kindergarten. The ECOT is administered in kindergarten by the teacher to gather information on what children know and can do at the time of entering kindergarten.

The ECOT is intended to identify students’ needs along with areas where families and teachers can support those needs. There are many different factors that impact early childhood assessment, and the state does not intend this assessment to be used for high-stakes decision making for children.

Other Considerations:

The graphs below show the percentage of children who meet kindergarten readiness standards as measured by the ECOT. Students who meet the standard of kindergarten readiness are those who received an average domain score corresponding to Achievement Level on the ECOT of at least “Accomplished for 4s (First Steps for K).”

The group of students represented here are kindergartners who attended New Mexico public schools and had an ECOT assessment record. The ECOT was not required in kindergarten during the 2020-21 school year. Although this tool was mandatory in the 2017-18 through 2019-20 school years, the highest year of compliance did not capture all kindergartners in NM. Table 1 displays the percentage of kindergartners potentially assessed by school year.

Table 1. Kindergartners in NM Assessed with the ECOT by School Year

Why does this matter?

RISE NM links information from all levels of education (including early childhood, K-12, and higher education) with workforce data to help us understand how people move and progress from school into their careers. Studying these patterns can help our state make better decisions as we aid New Mexicans in succeeding from cradle to career.

How to use the interactive dashboards:

You will find filters, drop-down menus, and tabs for every dashboard to help you explore and discover insights within the data. You can also click on interactive elements in the dashboards and hover over data points to see more information.

Tips and tricks:

• Make sure to click the blue refresh button in the upper right-hand corner of the dashboard every time you add, change, or remove filters.
• Click the far-right icon to reset any filters.
• Select and drag an area of the chart to zoom in or click on a trend line to isolate a specific trend line.
• Click the blue person icon in the bottom right-hand corner for accessibility options.

Understanding the Impact of COVID-19:

As noted by the U.S. Department of Education, the COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on student learning and other outcomes related to education and workforce. Data reflecting the time period beginning in March of 2020 and beyond should be considered with this context.

Visualization Technical Documentation

Please click here to learn more about the visualization technical documentation.