Early Entrance to Kindergarten Assessment

[Anonymous]

What exactly is tested? Our child has been accepted, but we have not been given much information on what was assessed...? We asked the vice principal and were given only vague answers. Are the parents not supposed to know? It seems strange that assessment process would be a secret?

[Anonymous]

MCPS is strange like that, they don't like to share information with parents. You need to be persistent to get questions answered. We did not do the EEK test, however, I heard it entails knowing all the upper case and lower case letters with no hesitation. Also counting.

[Anonymous]

something along these lines, I believe:

• Pre-reading - letter knowledge, print awareness, writing, and interest in and appreciation of books, reading, and writing.
• Language skills - receptive and expressive vocabulary skills, narrative understanding; phonology; grammatical knowledge; and conversational skills.
• Pre-mathematics – knowledge and skills that include number concepts, number operations, geometry concepts, and spatial reasoning.
• Social and emotional competencies – ability to relate to teachers and peers in positive ways, and the ability to manage feelings in age-appropriate ways.
• Self-management skills – children should have the ability to use the restroom independently, to feed and dress themselves, and follow verbal directions fairly consistently.
• Physical abilities – can sit and listen for short durations, can use scissors, can use pencil/crayons/markers, walk, climb stairs, run without falling

[Anonymous]

The 7:10 poster is basically correct. It should be noted that the test doesn't just simply measure if your child is "ready" for K. Since asking for early entrance is asking for an "exception", the test measures if your child has skills that are "exceptional". (There has to be a better way to say that, but I can't come up with it...so I hope that doesn't offend anyone!) I point that out because passing the exam and demonstrating mastery of the skills assessed indicates that the child has already reached many of the end of the year K benchmarks. That certainly doesn't mean your child won't be challenged, it just means that you can be confident that he/she is ready academically.

[Anonymous]

In other words, for EEK the child must test at a rising 1st grader level

[Anonymous]

Yes..it does basically mean that the skills of the child would be closer that that of a rising first grader in terms of benchmark expectations. That being said, lots of children who come into MCPS are in that boat--especially those that have attended preschool with any kind of academic base. So, a child who meets this is typically going to have many opportunities to enrichment.

[Anonymous]

Two REALLY good links:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/03/magazine/03kindergarten-t.html?pagewanted=2&en=6534eeb516595491&ex=1338609600&partner=digg&&exprod=digg&%2359;ei=5124&%2359;amp

http://women.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/women/families/article2392738.ece

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes..it does basically mean that the skills of the child would be closer that that of a rising first grader in terms of benchmark expectations. That being said, lots of children who come into MCPS are in that boat--especially those that have attended preschool with any kind of academic base. So, a child who meets this is typically going to have many opportunities to enrichment.

"Opportunities for enrichment"??? Good luck!! MCPS (or at least our local elementary school) has had nothing to offer as far as enrichment during Kindergarten or 1st grade. DC went to one of those pre-schools that was probably way more academic than it should have been for preschool (but that is another discussion). He entered Kindergarten reading at a fluent level (level M), and has been treading water waiting for the curriculum to catch up with him for the last two years!