A Comprehensive Examination of the School District of Philadelphia’s Kindergarten Classroom Engagement Scale (CES): Validation Report

The Penn Child Research Center and School District of Philadelphia (SDP) have partnered to foster the classroom engagement skills of students entering public school kindergarten. To do so, a three-phase, evidence-based, plan was developed. The first phase was to establish the scientific validity and reliability of the District’s measure of classroom engagement currently used at-scale with all kindergarteners–the Classroom Engagement Scale (CES). This measure consists of 14 items and it appears on the kindergarten report card which is sent home quarterly. This report contains the findings from the validation study.