Thanks to the collaboration of teachers, superintendents, and community leaders across the state, Arkansas has completed Phase 1 of the Early Development Instrument (EDI), a comprehensive tool that measures how well young children are developing as they enter kindergarten.
Unlike other tools that focus mainly on academics, the EDI captures the whole child across five critical areas:
- physical health and well-being,
- social competence,
- emotional maturity,
- language and cognitive development, and
- communication skills.
What makes EDI unique is its community-level approach. Rather than reporting on individual students, it provides a population-wide picture of childhood well-being so that entire communities can understand and respond to children’s developmental needs.
From spring 2023 to spring 2025, teachers in 105 districts across 68 counties completed EDI questionnaires for nearly 12,000 kindergarteners, representing 36% of annual enrollment. The results reveal a wide range of outcomes across the state and within communities:
- Overall, 28% of children are thriving across all developmental areas and nearly half show vulnerability in at least one domain.
- Arkansas kindergarteners showed the highest “on track” scores in physical readiness (75%), though this was slightly behind the national average.
- Other opportunities emerged for supporting social competence (69% on track) and emotional maturity (73% on track).
Schools and communities have already begun putting EDI data to work: In Mena Public Schools, kindergarten teachers used EDI subdomain data to better understand patterns in students’ motor development and recognized the need for targeted support. Independence County launched countywide literacy initiatives, embedding books and reading activities throughout the community.
Phase 2 will deepen this collaborative approach by expanding data literacy, strengthening community partnerships, and aligning with the Excel by Eight initiative to ensure every Arkansas child has a strong start.
Curious about your community’s EDI data? Access the interactive EDI dashboards here.
