Help! Appeal for MCPS Early Kindergarten

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just a thought for you. My daughter is Aug born. So when she turned 5. I put her in k. She was already ahead in academic. She is reading grade1. We thought she was so mature for her age base on her talk and action. However, she is struggling socially. I think staying back will be a good idea cause most kids that come into K are almost 6 and socially I do see it makes a difference.

My summer birthday kids both had best friends that were a whole year older in elementary school. Everybody and situation is different but I think most kids should just follow the rules unless there is a specific known concern. Someone is the oldest. Someone is the youngest. We met some kids with Fall bdays along the way. They moved from other areas or went private in K.

[Anonymous]

My daughter started K last fall and is on the older side, November bday, and there is a noticeable difference in maturity level between the girls with fall bdays and the girls with summer bdays who still haven’t turned 6 yet. Not necessarily in terms of academics (although none of the summer kids are in DDs advanced reading group) but noticeable in terms of social maturity. The younger girls are babies in comparison and a couple we know do struggle more socially as a result. I am speaking about girls only because mine is a girl and her friends are girls so that’s what I see but I’m sure it’s the same for boys. This difference will likely exist until much older grades.

I see a huge benefit to my daughter being on the older side. The older ones right now are looked up to in the class and are the natural leaders of the pack. I would not want to push early K. There are lots of kids in class with fall bdays so it’s not like she’ll be the only older kid.

[Anonymous]

Don't look at this too much as a reflection on your daughter. I have heard that it can also come down to space in the class. If allowing your daughter into the incoming K class might tip the scales over to them needing to get an additional teacher, they most likely won't admit anyone no matter how smart.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My daughter started K last fall and is on the older side, November bday, and there is a noticeable difference in maturity level between the girls with fall bdays and the girls with summer bdays who still haven’t turned 6 yet. Not necessarily in terms of academics (although none of the summer kids are in DDs advanced reading group) but noticeable in terms of social maturity. The younger girls are babies in comparison and a couple we know do struggle more socially as a result. I am speaking about girls only because mine is a girl and her friends are girls so that’s what I see but I’m sure it’s the same for boys. This difference will likely exist until much older grades.

I see a huge benefit to my daughter being on the older side. The older ones right now are looked up to in the class and are the natural leaders of the pack. I would not want to push early K. There are lots of kids in class with fall bdays so it’s not like she’ll be the only older kid.

The kids are not more mature, they are a year older. So, you cannot compare two kids at those ages with a year or more age difference and claim more mature. If anything because they are with younger kids, they are less mature than their true peers of the same age. Zero benefit of holding back. Age does not make you a leader.

My fall kid who we did not hold back has always been advanced in academics.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I dunno, OP. My kid went into kindergarten reading level 2 books and writing (poor, but complete) sentences, and certainly wasn’t the only one in her class. Sounds like she didn’t qualify for kindergarten because she didn’t have those academic skills yet. You just have to trust the process. Or move to DC.

It’s very principal subjective. Level two books is average. Many kids are reading much higher. Mine were. Mine had all the skills but the principal would not let any child in early entry. Kid thrived starting earlier.

[Anonymous]

The test in early exam is purposefully much harder than just K readiness they test what the kids would learn in K. They don't want kids in there early. Sucks but its what it is. My kid is aug 31 and im debating sending her on time or not. Shell be one the smallest and youngest.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The test in early exam is purposefully much harder than just K readiness they test what the kids would learn in K. They don't want kids in there early. Sucks but its what it is. My kid is aug 31 and im debating sending her on time or not. Shell be one the smallest and youngest.

This. A friend tried this nearly 10 years ago in a different local county. She asked what was on the test after her daughter failed and was told something similar to the bolded.

[Anonymous]

I think you should wow them by having her write her own appeal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The test in early exam is purposefully much harder than just K readiness they test what the kids would learn in K. They don't want kids in there early. Sucks but its what it is. My kid is aug 31 and im debating sending her on time or not. Shell be one the smallest and youngest.

Exactly this. They don’t have realistic expectations as many kids come in to k not even reading or knowing the alphabet.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don’t get why you would want to. It isn’t a rush to finish k-12. Better for her be the smartest in the class than middle of the pack

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I dunno, OP. My kid went into kindergarten reading level 2 books and writing (poor, but complete) sentences, and certainly wasn’t the only one in her class. Sounds like she didn’t qualify for kindergarten because she didn’t have those academic skills yet. You just have to trust the process. Or move to DC.

It’s very principal subjective. Level two books is average. Many kids are reading much higher. Mine were. Mine had all the skills but the principal would not let any child in early entry. Kid thrived starting earlier.

That's exactly the point. If OP's child can identify letters, but isn't reading or writing, she has a lot more she can learn in a pre-K program before entering kindergarten. Schools don't want to admit children that haven't already mastered the grade level standards and could potentially struggle, needing more intervention later. It's not a contest for who's child was the most precocious, the point is that there is a HUGE range in K-2nd and the bar to start early is whether she would be bored in the highest reading group, not whether she could keep up with the low to mid range group.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The test in early exam is purposefully much harder than just K readiness they test what the kids would learn in K. They don't want kids in there early. Sucks but its what it is. My kid is aug 31 and im debating sending her on time or not. Shell be one the smallest and youngest.

I also have an August 31 kid; I sent her on time and it's been the right fit for her (she's currently in high school).

I also have an early October kid who successfully passed the early entrance to K test. She's currently in middle school and it has also been good for her. We were told that the EEK test checks for end-of-kindergarten levels. The assumption is that early entrance is for kids who "need" to start kindergarten, rather than just for kids who would be fine starting kindergarten. It's not just about being ready to enter early, it's about showing that waiting another year would be inappropriate. At least, that's how it was explained to us.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think you should wow them by having her write her own appeal.

I love this! Every kid is different, but unfortunately there have to be cut offs. My boy/girl twins were born October 10 in MCPS. They both passed the early entrance to K test. The principal tried to get me to not send them. I sent them both. I watched them closely EVERY YEAR (academics, and socially, etc)

Moved them to private for middle school (that's another topic) Kept watching. Fast forward to today--Girl went straight through, thrived, and is finishing freshman year at age 18 at UCLA. Boy will graduate high school in two weeks. He needed an extra year around 8th grade. So he went to mcps for 9th, then repeated 9th in private where he stayed and thrived. He has also been admitted to UCLA

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The test in early exam is purposefully much harder than just K readiness they test what the kids would learn in K. They don't want kids in there early. Sucks but its what it is. My kid is aug 31 and im debating sending her on time or not. Shell be one the smallest and youngest.

I also have an August 31 kid; I sent her on time and it's been the right fit for her (she's currently in high school).

I also have an early October kid who successfully passed the early entrance to K test. She's currently in middle school and it has also been good for her. We were told that the EEK test checks for end-of-kindergarten levels. The assumption is that early entrance is for kids who "need" to start kindergarten, rather than just for kids who would be fine starting kindergarten. It's not just about being ready to enter early, it's about showing that waiting another year would be inappropriate. At least, that's how it was explained to us.

This is the key idea, OP. The test isn’t designed to measure whether a child is ready for kindergarten, it measures whether a child is so advanced that they would be harmed by not going to kindergarten. Kindergarten and early elementary standards are so low that many kids enter school having nothing much to learn for the first few years. Your child won’t be at a disadvantage by starting school on time, and will likely be better off in the long run.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think you should wow them by having her write her own appeal.

I love this! Every kid is different, but unfortunately there have to be cut offs. My boy/girl twins were born October 10 in MCPS. They both passed the early entrance to K test. The principal tried to get me to not send them. I sent them both. I watched them closely EVERY YEAR (academics, and socially, etc)

Moved them to private for middle school (that's another topic) Kept watching. Fast forward to today--Girl went straight through, thrived, and is finishing freshman year at age 18 at UCLA. Boy will graduate high school in two weeks. He needed an extra year around 8th grade. So he went to mcps for 9th, then repeated 9th in private where he stayed and thrived. He has also been admitted to UCLA

I mean; this is an objectively awful thing to do to your kid though. I wouldn’t call that a success story