New for 2024-2025

EARLY LEARNING ASSESSMENT (ELA)

For the 2024-2025 school year, any program using the Early Learning Assessment (ELA) as part of the requirements for Early Childhood Education Grant (ECE) and/or Preschool Special Education (PSE) funded children will report ratings through The Management Council. Programs will NOT report ELA results in EMIS or EAS but will do so through a new process. Programs familiar with the K12 Help Desk will recognize this organization because they have provided exemplary service and technical assistance to data managers and teachers since 2015. More details and information are forthcoming, but a process will be shared before the Fall ELA assessment window opens August 15.

Only programs serving children funded by ECE or PSE are required to use the ELA. Programs may choose to use Ohio’s Early Learning Assessment as their comprehensive assessment to meet Step Up To Quality requirements, assessing all children a minimum of two times during the year following a program determined schedule.

For the 2024-2025 school year, the requirement for PSE and ECE programs is to assess children with a set of 15 skills, knowledge, and behaviors (SKBS), in the fall and spring. For the comprehensive assessment for Step Up to Quality, the requirement is 32 SKBs, effectively retiring the original 72-SKB version of the ELA.

The ELA for Administrators and ELA for Teachers webpages provide a document for local programs to print. Programs that have earlier versions of the full 72-item comprehensive assessment may continue to use that version with a focus on the 32 SKBs that are approved for a comprehensive assessment, or the required priority set of 15 SKBs for ECE and PSE funded children.

ADMINISTRATOR/DATA MANAGER WEBINAR

The Department of Children and Youth will host a webinar for administrators and data managers on August 14 from 10 – 11 a.m. This webinar will cover ELA administration for 2024-2025, including the new data reporting process. There is no need to register in advance, simply join the webinar via this link: Join the meeting now

TEACHER TRAINING

The new Early Learning Assessment Essentials training will be available statewide the first week of August. The training will be a single three-hour online course, for early care and education professionals to complete on their own at their convenience. After completing the training through the Ohio Professional Registry, participants will receive three hours of Ohio Approved credit and will be fully certified to administer the ELA.

Stay tuned for updates on the ELA for Teachers webpage.

Deadlines and Dates

Contact

For policy and implementation questions:  For more information about the ELA, please go to the Early Learning Assessment website or send an email to ELAHelp@childrenandyouth.ohio.gov.

For technical questions, please contact the Help Desk: 844-K12-OHIO (844-512-6446) http://www.ohio-k12.help/