Honestly, as much as society wants to scream ADD or ADHD - the majority of this is normal 5 year old behavior. Yes there are some children who do have ADD and ADHD, but the average 5 year old child simply isn't hard wired to sit still or be quiet for long periods of time. They are still young children who are learning impulse control, rules and are by nature curious explorers. Remember when K used to be fun? When it was actually age appropriate? When 5 yo at K got to run around the playground, learn their ABCs, paint, play with blocks, learn there numbers, took naps, had story time and show and tell? Now that's all done in 2 & 3 yo day care and by K kids are expected to read, add, subtract and 'sit down and shut up' for 6 hours a day without proper breaks they have 25 min of silent/whispering lunch, 15 min on the playground and some schools are even forbidding tag (Mass. recently) while others are forbidding recess. When the child gets home it's homework, dinner, bath & bed. In Kindergarten!!! When does a child get to be a child anymore? And what is the end result? Classrooms full of medicated children who aren't any further ahead than they were unmedicated and teachers (I am one so no flames, just a generalization) and society who immediately suggest that any child not able to conform at FIVE must be evaluated.
What needs to be evaluated is her routine, her boredom level and the discipline in the classroom. Is the class on a daily routine? Do the kids know what to reasonably expect next? Is there breaks for movement? Is there a set of rules and consequences that are enforced in the classroom? If she's "driving the teacher nuts", what is the teacher doing about it? A lot of classrooms now have a red yellow green system or some other visual way for children to monitor their own behaviour. For the majority of children this works rather well. If she's talking out of turn during instruction time, is she talking simply to talk yo her neighbor or is she asking a question? You can't treat both of those actions the same. If she's asking a question is she following the classroom rules of raising her hand and waiting her turn? Are these rules posted, and reminded of? What is she not listening to? The instructions she's talking over? Or safety reminders like no running in the hall or stay in line? Is her good behaviour praised? If it's gotten to the point where her good behaviour isn't noticed she may be feeling the only way to get noticed is to misbehave.
How long has her teacher been teaching? We all come out of school full of idealism and our first few years are the hardest. The teacher may be trying to find her groove. Conference with her teacher and tell her what works at home to help your daughter pay attention and follow rules. Find out what form of discipline is used at school. It HAS to be a team effort from school to home and home to school.
Try playing games at home that reinforce listening and rule following. Play follow the leader simon says,red light green light and mother may I, taking turns being the leader to reinforce impulse control and listening skills, play memory with a deck of cards (or the game) to reinforce her concetration. If she's had a rotten day at school, address it and then ask her to find something good that happened that day (yes, quite the Pollyanna approach, but there generally is something good that happens each day). Also take a look at the diet. Make sure things are balanced and there's plenty of good filling food that's not high in sugar in the am, limit refined sugar and caffiene, especially before bed, 'eat your rainbow' as the saying goes to make sure that there is plenty of good veggies and variety and make sure she gets at least 8 hours of sleep each night.
If after trying everything you can possibly think of for a good ling while (2 mo or so) and there hasn't been any life altering changes that could cause behaviour changes like a move, a divorce, new work schedule, death in the family, etc. Then start talking to your ped about the possibility of testing. It should be a long process of evaluations, we are normally given a several page questionaire about the kids and so are the parents as well as any other adult who sees the child frequently, a tutor, coach or day care provider. Once all the evaluations are in and looked over there are generally meetings, and re-evaluations once a diagnosis has been reached. Then if it ends up medication is needed there are trail periods with doses. Medication is never an easy or quick fix and before that route is taken one needs to make sure it's the correct route to take.
For anyone who's interested my oldest daughter is ADD but it's diet controled, she's still squirley and talkative but as she's gotten older she's learned more self control. My middle most likely is not and my youngest appears to be a poster child for ADHD, but they are both young yet and we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. I just don't think every child who can't sit still needs to be diagnosed with a medical problem for age appropriate behaviour.
