Developing an Elementary Schools’ Readiness Assessment Tool (ESRAT): A Validity and Reliability Study

Abstract

This study seeks to develop a valid and reliable assessment tool that can be used to measure readiness of elementary schools for children starting to school. The lack of a tool designed to analyze elementary schools’ readiness in the literature further adds to the significance of this study. The study was conducted by following the steps intended to develop a scale. The data of the study were collected from two different participant groups. The content and face validity of the tool were established through expert opinion. To ensure the construct validity of the tool, an exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) were performed. The internal consistency coefficient (Cronbach alpha) was also calculated to assess the reliability of the tool. The CFA revealed that the tool has a structure with 24 items and four dimensions. In consequence of EFA, the final version of the tool with 26 items and four dimensions has its compliance values in the acceptable range (X²/sd=1,829; CFI=.91; IFI=.91; RMSEA=.07; SRMR=.08, PNFI=.71; PGFI=.64). Some of the values of the model (GFI=.79; AGFI=.74) fail to reach the acceptable range of values. However, it is seen that these values are close to the acceptable range of values and the model is supported by other findings in the study. The parsimony
goodness of fit index (PGFI) is .64, which indicates that the simplicity of the model is above moderate. The Cronbach’s alpha values of the tool are .81 for the dimension of “Physical Safety Measures”, .91 for the dimension of “Physical Arrangements”, .83 for the dimension of “Teacher” and .92 for the dimension of “Transition”. The overall Cronbach’s alpha value of the tool is .93. The study might contribute to the achievement of concrete results in further studies on the dimension of “Schools’ Readiness”, which is one
of the dimensions of the concept of “School Readiness”.