Early entry to kindergarten

[Anonymous]

What are MCPS's general expectations for kids who are granted early entry to K? Not looking for a debate about whether it's appropriate, beneficial, or harmful - just looking for an idea of what kinds of kids are admitted early, especially given that it doesnt seem like any testing is involved in the application process. Thanks.

[Anonymous]

It really varies by the school. Our school wouldn't even let us apply for our child so we ended up going privately. Its very subjective.

(all the kids who started "early" we know are doing very well)

[Anonymous]

Our child started kindergarten "early" (a term that now seems ridiculous because at the time it was kids born between Sept 1-Oct 15), and we understood for our local ES it was strictly a function of space and then maturity, which was determined by a short one-on-one meeting with the reading teacher. If there was no room, wouldn't matter how mature your kid was. The maturity part cracked me up a bit because if your kid was born on Aug 30, wouldn't matter how mature (or immature) they were.

[Anonymous]

The test is for end-of-K skills, and since it is taken around April of the PK year, kids need to be at least a year ahead in all tested areas. If they don't pass each section of the test, they won't get in.

[Anonymous]

Our school does a skills test but like another PP said space matters more than anything. In one year they had 27 students in each of the K classes so no one got in from EEK. In addition to the test they really want a child who is socially and emotionally mature. Does the child separate well? Follow directions? Listen? Is the child able to sit still or are they fidgeting and restless?

[Anonymous]

OP here - thank you, all. It sounds like I probably need to call the school to get more info about capacity and process (the district's materials don't say anything about a test and the deadline to apply isn't until may or June so an april test seems odd), but I don't want to bother them if this is information I can get myself online. Are the end of K skills published anywhere?

[Anonymous]

If you can afford it - go private and then public for 1st or 2nd grade, having established your kid in K when you want them there. That doesn't require testing and is quite a common practice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you can afford it - go private and then public for 1st or 2nd grade, having established your kid in K when you want them there. That doesn't require testing and is quite a common practice.

First is by age. You can request an assessment after six weeks and if the school decides it’s appropriate your child can be moved from k to first. Admission to second is by grade and not age.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you can afford it - go private and then public for 1st or 2nd grade, having established your kid in K when you want them there. That doesn't require testing and is quite a common practice.

We considered this. But tried the EEK evaluation and the kid was accepted.

The PP is correct. They look for end of year K skills. Colors, shapes, reading, verbal skills.

Two kids got in at my ES when my kid got in.

[Anonymous]

I'm not sure it's the same test for all schools. I think it's more informal at some places but you can look at the MCPS K benchmarks somewhere. They do post that stuff. I don't think DC's school did colors, shapes. I think they did a little letter and number recognition and some basic math like counting.

[Anonymous]

^I think the benchmark might be counting to 20. It's really basic skills. Your child should be able to easily pass it without studying or you thinking about it. Or you should really not be doing EEK.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm not sure it's the same test for all schools. I think it's more informal at some places but you can look at the MCPS K benchmarks somewhere. They do post that stuff. I don't think DC's school did colors, shapes. I think they did a little letter and number recognition and some basic math like counting.

They expect the kids to basically be at a 1-2nd grade level and even then its pretty subjective. Your child can pass all the requirements and the school still say no. (or in our case the school refused to test).

OP, come up with a back up plan.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here - thank you, all. It sounds like I probably need to call the school to get more info about capacity and process (the district's materials don't say anything about a test and the deadline to apply isn't until may or June so an april test seems odd), but I don't want to bother them if this is information I can get myself online. Are the end of K skills published anywhere?

They are--there's a whole long brochure on it (on the order of 20 pages?) somewhere on the MCPS site. I know because we went looking for it to level-set our expectations regarding what the kid learned in Zoom K (in an immersion program) and whether there were pieces of curriculum we needed to remediate over the summer. There weren't.

[Anonymous]

Op again - thank you, all. Our home school is a two-way immersion so not interested in starting at private or trying to jump to 1st. Back up plan will just be to start on time and stay another year at a preschool we're very happy with. Appreciate all the information.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here - thank you, all. It sounds like I probably need to call the school to get more info about capacity and process (the district's materials don't say anything about a test and the deadline to apply isn't until may or June so an april test seems odd), but I don't want to bother them if this is information I can get myself online. Are the end of K skills published anywhere?

They are--there's a whole long brochure on it (on the order of 20 pages?) somewhere on the MCPS site. I know because we went looking for it to level-set our expectations regarding what the kid learned in Zoom K (in an immersion program) and whether there were pieces of curriculum we needed to remediate over the summer. There weren't.

Here´s the link to the brochure: https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/uploadedFiles/departments/earlychildhood/0953%2015_EarlyEntranceToKindergarten_Guide_ENGLISH.pdf