I have a slight confession… I hate data. Yep, I really do. Data equals a lot of work. And it’s time consuming. It’s tons of papers to keep up with. It’s not my favorite… at all. On the flip side, I love data. It gives me insight on what I need to reteach, what my small groups should focus on and how my class is progressing. That’s ALWAYS a major incentive when you see growth within your students. *pat on the back time* For this reason only, I track data and try to have my students set goals. Yes, goal setting in kindergarten is a thing.
However, when I don’t like things, I try to figure out a way to make it work for me! I made myself a data binder/assessment binder a few years ago and LOVED that I had all of my information in one HUGE binder. I had to do much more paperwork in the past for assessments. At my previous school, I started using ESGI to track my data. I’ll show you both ways. We’ve used ESGI to help with assessments so it saves me TONS of time and I don’t use ANY paper when it’s time for report cards unless I want to print something off.
Data Binders
Here’s what I do to keep up with tracking my student data in a binder form.
My data binder has a place for classroom data, student data and in the back is where I put most of my quick assessment sheets and cards. 
I do have a few letter naming sheets, number sheets, colors and alphabet charts behind the assessment tab. I rarely use these because I have a math and ELA intervention binder that also works as a great quick assessment. 
Storage in the Binder
I keep any cards in this zip bag and just pull them out. I have the cards color coded for easy use. Numbers are on orange, letters on one color, sight words on another and so on. I can quickly grab a color and get to work with what I want to assess for a particular child. 
Student Tabs
My binder also has a tab for each child. I keep all of their monthly assessment sheets here. They have an assessment sheet that goes home in their homework binder and when I fill it up, it is stored here.
The assessments are done during the week. I send them home on Mondays for parents to sign. I take them back out and keep them at school the rest of the week. This helps with them being misplaced or ruined. I’ve had some get things spilled on them and this helps to take them out every Tuesday morning for me to keep.
These assessments are VERY time consuming, but I LOVE them. I usually can check off students after small groups, after we’ve done something whole group, just working with them as I walk around the room and it lessens my workload on Fridays. The ones that already know all their letters and sounds – it’s easy to just check them off. This helps when you have to conference with parents as well. They already know up to date information on how their child is performing.
At my previous school, we didn’t have to give progress reports so this was my form of a progress report in kindergarten. I thought parents should have a weekly report/update of how their child was doing. We were doing DIBELS as well, so anything related to that would go under their tab as well.
It was SUPER easy to make tabs for each child. I just printed off a page with a background with their names and typed all of their names much smaller on one page. I cut each name out and just taped them to the page protectors. Quick and easy personalized tabs to help me when I’m looking for a certain child.
Goal Setting in Kindergarten
For our goal setting, I can only show you one picture (I prefer not to show their pictures next to the goals). 
I have different goals posted in one area in our room. I try to put it in a place that only we can see, so it’s not super noticeable if random people come in our room. It’s a mini celebration for us, but I don’t want them to feel discouraged if everyone walks in and can see they haven’t reached a goal yet. This particular year, I put it on the back of a bookcase. I add their pictures off to the side for students that have reached the goal.
We work really hard and talk about one goal for each child. Of course, some hit more than one or two quickly and that’s okay. The fact that they get to see their picture makes them want to work a heck of a lot harder to get their pictures up. When they do reach a goal, they also get a note home or certificate. It just depends on what I’m doing each year.
ESGI for keeping up with data
ESGI is in it’s own world. For those that need to keep up with papers, the above worked for me for years. Now that I use ESGI, I haven’t looked back. I wrote another post about how I use assess during small groups and go into detail about ESGI. You can check that out here. You can check it out there. I still set goals the same way, but I am fully PAPERLESS when it comes to tracking data. It’s all online.
That’s it! I try to keep it as SIMPLE as possible, but I like to have the data when it comes to conferences, RTI meetings, and during IEP time. I will have ALL of their data in one place and won’t have to scramble to look for it or try to hurry and print anything off. If you’re interested in trying ESGI for free, use this link to create your free trial. Use the code ENCHANTED to get it. I’d love to know what you think after you sign up.
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