How Do I Access the TX-KEA Toolkit?

Owned by Steph Sessions
Last updated: Aug 23, 2024
8 min read

Welcome to the TX-KEA Toolkit!

 

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This online toolkit is a “one stop shop” to locate a variety of materials and resources, each tailored to support the understanding and implementation of TX-KEA. This section offers content related to exploring the purpose, design, and research behind TX-KEA. Please note, beginning in Fall 2025, TX-KEA will be known as Circle Kindergarten Progress Monitoring.

TX-KEA provides teachers and specialists with a comprehensive understanding of students’ learning, enabling them to design differentiated instruction to better meet students’ unique needs and share information with families.

TX-KEA provides multiple implementation options to school districts and charter schools in English and Spanish. The TX-KEA User Guide provides information for these implementation options:

  • Three-wave progress monitoring tool (BOY, MOY, EOY)

  • Kindergarten Entry Assessment (BOY)

  • One-time literacy screener (BOY)

  • Dyslexia Screener (EOY)

View our videos to learn even more about what this toolkit offers!

Overview of the Texas Kindergarten Entry Assessment (TX-KEA)

 

The Texas Kindergarten Entry Assessment System (TX-KEA) is the result of a collaborative effort between the US Department of Education, the Texas Education Agency, and the Children’s Learning Institute (CLI) at UTHealth Houston to develop and validate a kindergarten entry assessment that can be reliably administered by kindergarten teachers in Texas at the beginning of the school year. It covers multiple child development domains to provide a holistic understanding of each student and better informs kindergarten teachers about the children in their classes, helping them to design differentiated instruction to meet students’ needs and share information with families. Learn more about the research project to develop TX-KEA on CLI’s website. TX-KEA launched on CLI Engage in August 2017.

The following table shows the measures/subtests available at each wave (BOY, MOY, and EOY) in English and Spanish. Refer to the TX-KEA User Guide for additional information about the subtests.

*The subtests that make up the BOY Kindergarten Literacy Screener Score, BOY Statewide Kindergarten Readiness score, and EOY Dyslexia Screener are highlighted in grey.

 

Logging Into CLI Engage

 

Your first step is to register your account on CLI Engage:

 

TX-KEA User Guide

 

The TX-KEA User Guide is a comprehensive guide that includes “need to know” information about the administration of TX-KEA in kindergarten classrooms.

Download the TX-KEA User Guide

La Guía del usuario de TX-KEA es una guía completa que incluye información “necesaria” sobre la administración de TX-KEA en salones de clases de kindergarten.

Descargue la Guía del usuario de TX-KEA

 

Kindergarten Classroom Resource Hub

 

The Kindergarten Classroom resources page provides extensive information about how to use the tools and resources on CLI Engage in public school kindergarten classrooms.

Kindergarten Classroom Resource Hub

Evidence-Based Implementation Practices

Beyond the standard “best assessment practices,” this section offers evidence-based implementation strategies to support educators’ understanding and implementation of TX-KEA. The content in this section offers resources for perspective and practice while growing awareness of classroom-level strategies. These practices are focused on making the most of TX-KEA as an assessment tool, family engagement resource, and professional learning hub. Additional resources are offered for differentiated implementation practices, such as offline and remote assessment modes.

TX-KEA Training

 

Comprehensive training for TX-KEA is available in the Online Courses section of CLI Engage. Users can earn certificates for the completion of each course.

  • TX-KEA Introduction (1 hour)

  • TX-KEA Administration Guidelines (2 hours)

  • TX-KEA Reporting Features (1 hour)

  • TX-KEA Overview for Administrators (1 hour)

When logged in, access the courses directly here: TX-KEA Self-Instructional Courses

 

TX-KEA Literacy Screener

 

The TX-KEA Literacy Screener is comprised of the Vocabulary, Letter Names, and Spelling subtests. Students will score within the “on track” (green), “monitor” (yellow) or “support” (red) benchmarks ranges for each subtest. These scores assist districts in informing student instruction. The composite score produced can be used to identify students who meet the “support” benchmark because they are in the bottom 25th percentile.

The TX-KEA Literacy Screener (administered at wave 1/BOY) assesses:

  • Vocabulary, Letter Names, and Spelling in English

  • Vocabulary, Letter Names, and Spelling in Spanish

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TEA Statewide Kindergarten Readiness Score

 

The Statewide Kindergarten Readiness score is comprised of Vocabulary, Letter Names, and Spelling subtests. Students must meet the “on track” (green) benchmark for all three subtests to meet the kindergarten readiness criteria determined by TEA. Districts can use the additional subtest data to make individual determinations regarding students who may require additional support.

 

Dyslexia Screening

 

CLI Engage offers two tools to support dyslexia screening for kindergarten students in English and Spanish. These tools can be used together to identify students who may be at risk for dyslexia.

  • Dyslexia Screener is a direct assessment that align with the student skill criteria for dyslexia screening in accordance with Texas Education Code §28.006 and §38.003(a)

  • Dyslexia Referral Checklist is a supplemental questionnaire that build a link between direct assessment of early reading skills and classroom observations

The kindergarten dyslexia screener on CLI Engage (administered at wave 3/EOY) uses the following measures to assess skills identified in TEA’s Dyslexia Handbook (2021). Teachers can use the Dyslexia Referral Checklist as a supplement to support screening.

English

  • Letter Sound Knowledge or Letter Naming Fluency:

    • TX-KEA measure: Letter Sounds (receptive and expressive)

  • Phonological Awareness:

    • TX-KEA measure: Blending (receptive and expressive)

Spanish

  • Letter Sound Knowledge or Letter Naming Fluency:

    • TX-KEA measure: Sonidos de las letras (receptivo)

  • Phonological Awareness:

    • TX-KEA measure: Combinación de sonidos (receptivo y expresivo) and Decodificación

Review additional information on the dyslexia screening tools on CLI Engage: Dyslexia Screening

 

TX-KEA Scoring Guidelines

 

Below are the TX-KEA guidelines to receive additional guidance on scoring the TX-KEA subtests. Documents are available for all three waves (BOY, MOY, and EOY), if applicable.

Scoring Guidelines in Spanish and English include:

  • Vocabulary Subtest Acceptable Responses

  • Letter Sounds Expressive Subtest

  • Academic Motor Skills Subtest (visual samples and instructions)

  • Social Competence and Emotion Management Subtest (rating scales)

  • Spelling Subtest (teacher script, teacher demonstration video, student forms, acceptable letter approximations form)

TX-KEA Scoring Guidelines

 

Remote and Offline Assessment Administration

 

Utilize CLI’s resources for alternative remote administration functionality and protocols for TX-KEA. Visit our detailed webpage to access teacher’s guides, webinars, and visual schedules to support teachers as they administer assessments remotely: Remote Assessment Administration

The offline assessment feature can be used to assess students when an internet connection is not available at the time of administration. The offline feature for TX-KEA can be accessed from the assessment practice area (for practicing the offline feature) or directly from the class view in TX-KEA (when conducting the assessments): TX-KEA Offline Assessment

 

TX-KEA Training Facilitation Guides

 

The TX-KEA training facilitation guides have specific training facilitation information for school staff who will be facilitating training on TX-KEA with their teachers:

  • TX-KEA Training Facilitation Guide Module 1: Introduction

  • TX-KEA Training Facilitation Guide Module 2: Administration Guidelines

  • TX-KEA Training Facilitation Guide Module 3: Reporting Features

Download Texas Kindergarten Entry Assessment Training Facilitation Guides

Interested in becoming a TX-KEA Facilitator? Receive access to facilitate online courses and award certificates directly on CLI Engage: Facilitator Application Form

 

Family Observation Forms

 

Teachers can collect valuable information on their student’s development by sharing these forms with families and asking them to give feedback about their child. Each form is aligned to the TX-KEA assessment domains to support the integration of family information into instructional planning.

Parent/Family Feedback Forms in Spanish and English include:

  • TX-KEA Emotion Management

  • TX-KEA Social Emotional

  • TX-KEA Motivation to Read

  • TX-KEA Speech Production and Sentence Skills

  • TX-KEA Fine Motor Skills

TX-KEA Family Observation Forms

View how-to guides for printing parent reports and viewing results online:

 

Resource Library

Our resource library is curated to help meet the demand from the classroom to the district level. Browse our content to find courses, webinars, and guides to further support your understanding of implementing TX-KEA and analyzing data.

Data and Reports

 

Learn about the various reports available on CLI Engage and find how-to guides along with support resources for districts. Many of the following reports can be generated at the individual student, class, school, and community/district levels.

  • Completion Report

  • Growth Report

  • Summary Reports

  • Percentile Rank

  • Custom Score Report (for Literacy and Dyslexia Screening)

  • Grouping Reports (class level only)

Learn more about all the levels of CLI Engage Reports.

 

Data Driven Instruction

 

The CIRCLE Activity Collection: Pre-K to Grade 2 Collection includes the following in each lesson:

  • A description of the activity, the learning domains the activity supports, and an appropriate grade level

  • Materials needed for the activity

  • Activity instructions and soft scripting for implementation

  • Helpful hints, including tips to create variations, related books to read aloud, and ways to scaffold student’s learning

  • Applicable alignments to the TEKS

Teachers can access many activities just for kindergarten by utilizing these search options:

The CIRCLE STEM Lab Collection is a virtual laboratory that hosts video segments from PBS Learning Media with hands-on STEM activities which can be completed independently by students at home. These interactive activities integrate video segments with hands-on activities and can also be used independently by students at school or as a teacher directed activity.

 

Benchmarks

 

Benchmarks are the minimum performance levels students are expected to reach by certain points of the year to indicate skill understanding. The TX-KEA Benchmark table displays the cut scores for benchmarks and is helpful in analyzing your data.

Review TX-KEA Benchmarks

 

TX-KEA-TEKS Alignments

 

Each TX-KEA subtest is directly aligned to Kindergarten TEKS in the TX-KEA-Kindergarten TEKS Alignment.

 

Early Childhood Data System (ECDS) for Kindergarten Data

 

ECDS is part of the Texas Student Data System (TSDS). Click on the link below for more information about kindergarten ECDS requirements and uploads:

 

Sharing TX-KEA Data with Families

 

Teachers using TX-KEA can share individual student reports with families by printing reports or by providing a personalized identification number (PIN) for families to view results online. Teachers can also send families activities that are designed to support skill development at home.

Refer to Understanding Your Child’s Assessment Results to assist families in becoming more knowledgeable about progress monitoring and supporting learning at home.

When sharing assessment results with parents, refer to our Family-Friendly Description of Assessment Measures.

 

CIRCLE Activity Collection: Family

 

CLI Engage provides a CIRCLE Activity Collection specifically designed to support children’s skill development at home with their parents and families. The CIRCLE Activity Collection: Family can be accessed on mobile devices and does not require a login. This collection provides a variety of hands-on activities that families can do at home. This collection is organized around seven learning domains: Language & Communication, Reading & Writing, Math, Science, Social & Emotional, Physical Development, and Art & Sensory.

 

CLI Engage Family Engagement Toolkit

 

CLI’s family engagement resources make the most of procedures you already have in place, such as progress monitoring, homework, parent-teacher conferences, and open houses.

 

Search FAQs in our support resources, or contact the Education Advisor team.

Related Resources