Is EEK (early entrance to kindergarten) getting harder?

[Anonymous]

Just do whatever you think is best for your child, as a parent always does... Don't worry about what some people, like PP, say. There is certainly a way to pursue the issue diplomatically.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just do whatever you think is best for your child, as a parent always does... Don't worry about what some people, like PP, say. There is certainly a way to pursue the issue diplomatically.

Exactly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Well clearly they have to have some kind of cutoff

Sure, but they should allow parents with kids close to the cutoff have the opportunity to push forward or hold back depending on their needs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well clearly they have to have some kind of cutoff

Sure, but they should allow parents with kids close to the cutoff have the opportunity to push forward or hold back depending on their needs.

And theoretically they do, but effectively they only let people hold back their kids, not push forward.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I just met with the principal to get the results of my child's test, and it was a complete waste of time. Th meeting was 5 mins long and she just said essentially "she didn't pass the test. It's a secure test, and we can't tell you more. You are welcome to appeal." So, I don't think there is any point of meeting with a principal for those of you who are wondering how your child did. I got the sense that there is no point in appealing--the school controls the test and has discretion in the scoring of the results.

But, if you do appeal, do you get to access the information?

Anyone on here tried to appeal? Is there any way to get the school to give you a good reason as to WHY your child wasn't accepted?

I completely agree that there needs to be more transparency.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well clearly they have to have some kind of cutoff

Sure, but they should allow parents with kids close to the cutoff have the opportunity to push forward or hold back depending on their needs.

Your choice is to go private.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well clearly they have to have some kind of cutoff

Sure, but they should allow parents with kids close to the cutoff have the opportunity to push forward or hold back depending on their needs.

Your choice is to go private.

Unfortunately not everyone can afford private.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Unfortunately not everyone can afford private.

Bummer. Guess kid's life is ruined then because now forced to do unchallenged school work with kids a year younger.

[Anonymous]

BTW the public to private works for EEK to too. We sent our son early ( at 4) to K and he transferred to a private where the cut-off is June, but he was allowed to stay with his class. He is a full year younger than most of the boys in his class but did great. He is now talking about a gap year before he starts college!

To answer the question about sex ed, he asked about babies and how they are made at age 3, so we told him in simple language. After mulling it over for a few minutes, he asked, "so what is sex?" I have no idea where he heard this, but it was true about almost every topic. He was intensely curious about everything. Thats why we sent him early.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:If they are overcrowded, yes they will be more strict. It sucks but I recommend that you fight for it. The curriculum is so ridiculously slow and my child (an Aug birthday) is bored out of her mind.

I truly do not understand this. What is too slow? If the child is a precocious reader, is she not allowed to read at her level? In math, there are things like "make an addition fact family". That can be using 5+2=7 or 326+408=734. Right?

My child is in the middle of 1st grade and the furthest they have gotten is adding/subtracting up to the sum of 6. She did that in preschool. They have not learned any time, money, fractions or simple geometry yet. It is all VERY basic adding/subtracting with number lines, groups etc.... It is extremely slow. My oldest was actually EEK in Sept and at that point they had math levels so she was in K and then moved to math2 in grade 1. So she was adding/subtracting into the thousands and doing fractions and some geometry. Time and money was taught in K. She finished 5th doing Math 7 and moved right to Algebra 1 in 6th grade. They no longer have those options. ALL kids learn math at the same pace in MCPS until grade 4-5 when they can possibly go into compact math.

As far as reading, they do not encourage you to read past certain levels. So my 1st grade daughter already hit the end of 2nd grade reading level at M and is not allowed to advance past that until 2nd grade. Whereas my other daughter's reading group kept going and going and they even moved kids around in groups to keep them accelerating. 2.0 is about learning the basics. It helps kids that have had no prior learning but it seriously hinders kids that learned in preschool and learn at home.

That is completely different from how my child was taught in McPS in K. She was a level O in K and had peers in her class. Teacher did not cap her level. And in first grade they are adding and subtracting over 100. Of course only some are. Many are not, and that is fine too. Clearly different schools handle this differently!

NP here. How long ago was your child in K? We were told at back to school night this year that kids in K would never move past E level and they instead would work on comprehension and writing so they could advance in 1st grade. I would be royally pissed if other schools advance. I have a hard time believing that a public school kindergarten had a reading group level that was at a 3/4th grade level.

It was last year. They did.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well clearly they have to have some kind of cutoff

Sure, but they should allow parents with kids close to the cutoff have the opportunity to push forward or hold back depending on their needs.

Your choice is to go private.

Unfortunately not everyone can afford private.

For us, it was the same price as preschool. There are more affordable privates but they are the lessor known, not popular ones. We had to do preschool or private for when our child turned 5 in September as the public would not take him.

[Anonymous]

Well some recent reports I have heard indicate that schools are using VERY different criteria in the EEK screening, at least this year. E.g., two schools within close proximity (I'm not sure exactly which ones, but both within our preschool zone) with one asking the child to read a book and spell words, and the other school doing neither. I cannot get over the complete lack of consistency. I think MCPS needs to answer for this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I just met with the principal to get the results of my child's test, and it was a complete waste of time. Th meeting was 5 mins long and she just said essentially "she didn't pass the test. It's a secure test, and we can't tell you more. You are welcome to appeal." So, I don't think there is any point of meeting with a principal for those of you who are wondering how your child did. I got the sense that there is no point in appealing--the school controls the test and has discretion in the scoring of the results.

We met with the assistant principal, as well as the two teachers that had done the testing and evaluation, and it was actually a rather useful conversation. While they couldn't say what my child's precise scores were, they did say which sections passed, and which did not, which we had asked so that we would know whether an appeal would be worthwhile.

On speaking casually with the principal, I was told that the individual school is required to follow the guidelines provided, and that all sections must be passed in order to be EEK. But, the principal was very encouraging about appealing. The asst principal was as well, to an extent.

After both conversations, we did decide to appeal, and my child was admitted.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do you get the actual scores from the evaluation?

Would you consider appealing? I have heard of at least one case in which this was successful....

We did get the actual score. As for appealing, you can. But I read every public decision I could find and none were successful. It wasn't worth my time.

My child was successful! It was worth the time to appeal! (Just to leave hope for future parents considering EEK.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do you get the actual scores from the evaluation?

Would you consider appealing? I have heard of at least one case in which this was successful....

I did not get the actual scores from the evaluation, although they did tell me what my child passed and didn't pass. When we appealed, the appeal approval included the report which did include the actual scores.