Hayfield, Triton provide rural representation for kindergarten fall assessment pilot program

Kindergarteners across Minnesota will undergo the Minnesota Kindergarten Fall Assessment at the beginning of each school year starting in fall 2027. The Minnesota Department of Education announced its fall 2026 pilot assessment in spring 2026.
And teachers and leadership at both Hayfield and Triton jumped at the chance to participate.
“The teachers came to me with an interest in piloting it, saying ‘we want that extra year of experience,’” Triton Elementary principal Shane Van Beek said.
The MDE began developing the assessment in 2023 in an effort to improve understanding of early learning statewide. The assessment is not a “readiness test” and does not determine student placement. Instead, it focuses on progress indicators to identify where students are in their learning and development.
This observation-based assessment begins the first time a teacher meets the student, and continues until October 31. Teachers routinely keep record of student skills demonstrated in everyday classroom activities, recess, free play, instruction time and more.
“Teachers are letting parents know at the meet and greets that in the first several weeks of school, they’ll be observing the students and parents will get reports of it all. We aren’t making any reports in secrecy or anything of that nature,” Van Beek said.
The new system of assessment tracks sixteen developmental skills across four domains of learning: social and emotional development, approaches to learning, foundational mathematics, and language, literacy and communication.
“Even though the state is calling it a kindergarten assessment, the MnKFA is not like traditional state assessments. There are no right or wrong answers,” Triton kindergarten teacher Amanda Mueller wrote in an email.
Kindergartners and their families do not bear the burden of being “ready” to begin kindergarten. The MnKFA allows teachers and districts to standardize their records of student development and better adapt to the needs of early learners in the community.
“The MnKFA will give teachers a better understanding of where students are at developmentally at the beginning of kindergarten and what supports students and families may need prior to kindergarten,” Mueller wrote.
Elementary teachers have been making these kinds of observations and modifications to support early learners behind the scenes all along. The MnKFA gives teachers the chance to standardize the work they are already doing and apply its findings locally and statewide.
“Teachers have been doing this for countless years. Adjustments are made hour by hour, even minute by minute sometimes. It’s been happening, so it’s time to formalize it,” Van Beek said. “We will have time over MEA to assess what the teachers have found, and we should get more data from the state down the line. Ultimately this will be very good information not just for Triton kindergarteners, but for our preschool as well.”
Rural Voice
Hayfield Elementary School Principal Kayla Stanton said that they saw it as a great opportunity to participate in the pilot program for a couple of reasons.
“We saw this as a great opportunity for a couple of reasons. First and foremost, MnKFA will help us get to know our incoming kindergarten scholars in a more comprehensive way and identify how we can best support them socially, emotionally, and academically from the very beginning of their time with us,” she said.
Stanton said they believe “it is important to have a voice when statewide systems and assessments are being developed.”
“As a rural school district, we want to make sure the experiences and needs of our students, staff, and families are represented in that process,” she said. “Participating in the pilot gives us an opportunity to provide feedback that can help shape how MnKFA is implemented in the future.”
Stanton said that she is also looking forward to using the data they collect to work.
“I am most looking forward to taking the information we gather and actually using it to make decisions for kids,” she said. “The goal isn’t simply to collect data—it is to use what we learn to strengthen our instructional practices and make sure we are meeting the needs of all of our kindergarten learners.”
Stanton said that it can help them look at their “instruction, supports, and even how we structure our schedules so that we are providing kindergarteners with what they need from the very beginning of their school experience.”
“I’m also excited that our staff will have the opportunity to provide feedback as part of the pilot,” she said. “ Having a rural district represented in conversations about how this will look statewide is important to us.”