If this is the way the public education system works, I am already in despair about my choices.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, you have my full sympathy, but I was offended when you seemed to extend your blame for your situation to all DC schools, and talk about how much you can't wait to move away. Folks have said over & over that your school is an outlier with inappropriate expectations. Don't paint all DC schools with the same brush.

Doesn't change the fact that the system is painful to navigate and deal with, school quality is wildly uneven, your choices may be poor or limited based on where you can afford to live, you are at the mercy of a lottery system, etc etc. I'm not saying every DC school is bad. I am saying I have some concerns about public education and the culture of testing, evaluations, standard based on my experience. And that culture is not limited to DC.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:http://dc.gov/downloads/TEACHING%20&%20LEARNING/Learning%20Standards%202009/DCPS-ELA-PREK-STANDARDS-LEARNING-ACTIVITIES.pdf

Your situation seems to be an outlier, if your school is actually expecting children to read and write by the end of PreK.

Thank you for this - I was searching dc.gov for this early and having some difficulty finding it. Does anyone know if the charters are bound to these standards? Because I don't think they are necessarily - although I definitely plan to ask.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Go for a good Montessori School. If you are not familiar with the philosophy behind it, search for it. You will see why it is so great with young kids.

I would very much like to explore Montessori, but my DH insists that it is the wrong environment for our son. I just have to wholeheartedly disagree, but there's not much I can do if DH is opposed.

There are some convincing resources out there to help learn about Montessori, especially since there are some prevalent misconceptions that are out there. If it's something you want to keep discussing with your husband, see this book for some backup: http://www.amazon.com/Montessori-The-Science-Behind-Genius/dp/019536936X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1358529443&sr=8-1&keywords=lillard

Check out the AMS and AMI web sites, too.

Thank you - I will definitely give these a read and share them with DH.

[Anonymous]

I'm not sure if you even understand your experience. You are 100% unwilling to consider that your school is trying to help your child, and are caught up in this idea that you have been targeted by incompetents who have labeled your child as below where he should be cognitively.

You have two options:
1. Pull your kid out of school and send him back to daycare - you've already said you're not in this for the long haul, so remove yourself from this situation that has so upset you
2. Refuse the services of the IEP and continue on with the school year.

The way that you describe what happened here doesn't add up, and it doesn't prove that public education in DC is hopelessly flawed. I know that you're not interested in hearing opinions that clash with your own, but I have two kids who have been in two different schools and neither has been given an assessment because they couldn't read or write at 3.5. Either you are at some wacko school that follows a curriculum completely out of sync with DCPS or you have completely misunderstood what the school has told you. You've admitted yourself you haven't had the IEP meeting yet, and you're approaching this IEP as though it is some sort of disciplinary process that you need to bring an advocate to. An advocate would be needed if your child needed special services and the school said your child wasn't eligible for those services.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm not sure if you even understand your experience. You are 100% unwilling to consider that your school is trying to help your child, and are caught up in this idea that you have been targeted by incompetents who have labeled your child as below where he should be cognitively.

You have two options:
1. Pull your kid out of school and send him back to daycare - you've already said you're not in this for the long haul, so remove yourself from this situation that has so upset you
2. Refuse the services of the IEP and continue on with the school year.

The way that you describe what happened here doesn't add up, and it doesn't prove that public education in DC is hopelessly flawed. I know that you're not interested in hearing opinions that clash with your own, but I have two kids who have been in two different schools and neither has been given an assessment because they couldn't read or write at 3.5. Either you are at some wacko school that follows a curriculum completely out of sync with DCPS or you have completely misunderstood what the school has told you. You've admitted yourself you haven't had the IEP meeting yet, and you're approaching this IEP as though it is some sort of disciplinary process that you need to bring an advocate to. An advocate would be needed if your child needed special services and the school said your child wasn't eligible for those services.

You just clearly haven't read my posts at all. We agreed to have him evaluated b/c of behavioral and sensory issues that we were also seeing at home. We agreed to a early developmental psychologist's eval b/c they said it would help and they had the resource available. As a part of this the psychologist adminstered a COGNITIVE AND ACADEMIC SKILLS TEST MEANT FOR KIDS AGED 4-7. I've said that about 10 times now My kid is 3.5 I resent the fact that this joker labeled my kid as "cognitively below average" as the result of a test he is not even old enough to take and for which there is no 3yo data set to measure him against. I am not approaching the IEP as if it is disciplinary. I get what it is about and I am not opposed to what will help him. But if the IEP is in any way based on developmentally inappropriate tests/results then no, I will not stand for that. And I will absolutely take advantage of my right to get a second opinion if I want and to have that opinion considered by the school. And yes, I do believe that my school has best intentions but I am not sure I agree with their expectations or the methods of the people they've contracted through the SPED office.

If you don't agree that public education is overly obsessed with standardized testing then that is your right. We assumed that the psychologist would observe our child, maybe play a few evaluative games but not that he would administer a battery of tests, at least one of which is not even approved for his age group. After reading the reports it became clear he was subjected to about 6 different tests over the course of 2-3 hours (albeit on different days) and none of this was made clear to us beforehand. So this has me wondering how many kids in general are subjected to this battery and for what reasons.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm not sure if you even understand your experience. You are 100% unwilling to consider that your school is trying to help your child, and are caught up in this idea that you have been targeted by incompetents who have labeled your child as below where he should be cognitively.

You have two options:
1. Pull your kid out of school and send him back to daycare - you've already said you're not in this for the long haul, so remove yourself from this situation that has so upset you
2. Refuse the services of the IEP and continue on with the school year.

The way that you describe what happened here doesn't add up, and it doesn't prove that public education in DC is hopelessly flawed. I know that you're not interested in hearing opinions that clash with your own, but I have two kids who have been in two different schools and neither has been given an assessment because they couldn't read or write at 3.5. Either you are at some wacko school that follows a curriculum completely out of sync with DCPS or you have completely misunderstood what the school has told you. You've admitted yourself you haven't had the IEP meeting yet, and you're approaching this IEP as though it is some sort of disciplinary process that you need to bring an advocate to. An advocate would be needed if your child needed special services and the school said your child wasn't eligible for those services.

Another DCPS troll! It was bound to happen. OP ignore this miscreant. They're more interested in keeping things status quo and covering-up a school's failings than really doing something to correct a clear disservice to a child. Happens all the time. Then, to further their BS they'll tell you a personal story. Now, "she" has two kids in two different school and "they" weren't given an assessment, blah.. blah... blah... This story and the many others you read undoubtedly makes said BSer an expert on DCPS. Next, they'll bring up their "friends" and throw in that they're black or gay to further get credo. Least is provides comic relief to this quirky board!!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm not sure if you even understand your experience. You are 100% unwilling to consider that your school is trying to help your child, and are caught up in this idea that you have been targeted by incompetents who have labeled your child as below where he should be cognitively.

You have two options:
1. Pull your kid out of school and send him back to daycare - you've already said you're not in this for the long haul, so remove yourself from this situation that has so upset you
2. Refuse the services of the IEP and continue on with the school year.

The way that you describe what happened here doesn't add up, and it doesn't prove that public education in DC is hopelessly flawed. I know that you're not interested in hearing opinions that clash with your own, but I have two kids who have been in two different schools and neither has been given an assessment because they couldn't read or write at 3.5. Either you are at some wacko school that follows a curriculum completely out of sync with DCPS or you have completely misunderstood what the school has told you. You've admitted yourself you haven't had the IEP meeting yet, and you're approaching this IEP as though it is some sort of disciplinary process that you need to bring an advocate to. An advocate would be needed if your child needed special services and the school said your child wasn't eligible for those services.

Another DCPS troll! It was bound to happen. OP ignore this miscreant. They're more interested in keeping things status quo and covering-up a school's failings than really doing something to correct a clear disservice to a child. Happens all the time. Then, to further their BS they'll tell you a personal story. Now, "she" has two kids in two different school and "they" weren't given an assessment, blah.. blah... blah... This story and the many others you read undoubtedly makes said BSer an expert on DCPS. Next, they'll bring up their "friends" and throw in that they're black or gay to further get credo. Least is provides comic relief to this quirky board!!!

It seemed a pretty rational post to me. OP's response was also fine. But yours is kinda weird ...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm not sure if you even understand your experience. You are 100% unwilling to consider that your school is trying to help your child, and are caught up in this idea that you have been targeted by incompetents who have labeled your child as below where he should be cognitively.

You have two options:
1. Pull your kid out of school and send him back to daycare - you've already said you're not in this for the long haul, so remove yourself from this situation that has so upset you
2. Refuse the services of the IEP and continue on with the school year.

The way that you describe what happened here doesn't add up, and it doesn't prove that public education in DC is hopelessly flawed. I know that you're not interested in hearing opinions that clash with your own, but I have two kids who have been in two different schools and neither has been given an assessment because they couldn't read or write at 3.5. Either you are at some wacko school that follows a curriculum completely out of sync with DCPS or you have completely misunderstood what the school has told you. You've admitted yourself you haven't had the IEP meeting yet, and you're approaching this IEP as though it is some sort of disciplinary process that you need to bring an advocate to. An advocate would be needed if your child needed special services and the school said your child wasn't eligible for those services.

Another DCPS troll! It was bound to happen. OP ignore this miscreant. They're more interested in keeping things status quo and covering-up a school's failings than really doing something to correct a clear disservice to a child. Happens all the time. Then, to further their BS they'll tell you a personal story. Now, "she" has two kids in two different school and "they" weren't given an assessment, blah.. blah... blah... This story and the many others you read undoubtedly makes said BSer an expert on DCPS. Next, they'll bring up their "friends" and throw in that they're black or gay to further get credo. Least is provides comic relief to this quirky board!!!

It seemed a pretty rational post to me. OP's response was also fine. But yours is kinda weird ...

Of course it's weird- you're a DCPS troll! Go away!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Go for a good Montessori School. If you are not familiar with the philosophy behind it, search for it. You will see why it is so great with young kids.

Montessori is the last thing I'd recommend for a kid with sensory issues.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Go for a good Montessori School. If you are not familiar with the philosophy behind it, search for it. You will see why it is so great with young kids.

Montessori is the last thing I'd recommend for a kid with sensory issues.

Why? If it were a smaller class size how could it be worse than a classroom of 25 kids and an environment where he is expected to follow the same schedule every day? He does best when he can engage in things he wants to do. I realize he needs to be pushed in terms of his attention span, transitions, etc but I just don't see how a Montessori environment would be worse for him at all.

[Anonymous]

You keep bringing up one ACHIEVEMENT test that shouldn't have been administered. What were the results from the other 4 or 5 tests that were administered. Why is the report saying cognitive ability is low when just an achievement test was low, or did he score low on the cognitive part too? What category are they finding him under? You have the right to ask for an Independent Educational Evaluation at no cost to you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Go for a good Montessori School. If you are not familiar with the philosophy behind it, search for it. You will see why it is so great with young kids.

Montessori is the last thing I'd recommend for a kid with sensory issues.

Why? If it were a smaller class size how could it be worse than a classroom of 25 kids and an environment where he is expected to follow the same schedule every day? He does best when he can engage in things he wants to do. I realize he needs to be pushed in terms of his attention span, transitions, etc but I just don't see how a Montessori environment would be worse for him at all.

Montessori is a good option for kids who self-regulate well. Kids with sensory issues and consequently behavioral challenges need more structure.

[Anonymous]

Try a Waldorf school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm not sure if you even understand your experience. You are 100% unwilling to consider that your school is trying to help your child, and are caught up in this idea that you have been targeted by incompetents who have labeled your child as below where he should be cognitively.

You have two options:
1. Pull your kid out of school and send him back to daycare - you've already said you're not in this for the long haul, so remove yourself from this situation that has so upset you
2. Refuse the services of the IEP and continue on with the school year.

The way that you describe what happened here doesn't add up, and it doesn't prove that public education in DC is hopelessly flawed. I know that you're not interested in hearing opinions that clash with your own, but I have two kids who have been in two different schools and neither has been given an assessment because they couldn't read or write at 3.5. Either you are at some wacko school that follows a curriculum completely out of sync with DCPS or you have completely misunderstood what the school has told you. You've admitted yourself you haven't had the IEP meeting yet, and you're approaching this IEP as though it is some sort of disciplinary process that you need to bring an advocate to. An advocate would be needed if your child needed special services and the school said your child wasn't eligible for those services.

Another DCPS troll! It was bound to happen. OP ignore this miscreant. They're more interested in keeping things status quo and covering-up a school's failings than really doing something to correct a clear disservice to a child. Happens all the time. Then, to further their BS they'll tell you a personal story. Now, "she" has two kids in two different school and "they" weren't given an assessment, blah.. blah... blah... This story and the many others you read undoubtedly makes said BSer an expert on DCPS. Next, they'll bring up their "friends" and throw in that they're black or gay to further get credo. Least is provides comic relief to this quirky board!!!

It seemed a pretty rational post to me. OP's response was also fine. But yours is kinda weird ...

Of course it's weird- you're a DCPS troll! Go away!

OP said she is at a charter and most charters act as their own LEA. This has nothing to do with DCPS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You keep bringing up one ACHIEVEMENT test that shouldn't have been administered. What were the results from the other 4 or 5 tests that were administered. Why is the report saying cognitive ability is low when just an achievement test was low, or did he score low on the cognitive part too? What category are they finding him under? You have the right to ask for an Independent Educational Evaluation at no cost to you.

I also take exception to the fact that he is being rated low by the evaluator against criteria such as the following:

"seems unable to answer simple logic questions such as why do people have cars."
"is unable to remember the exact sequence of events or answer certain specific questions about a story a few minutes after it was read to him."
"seems incapable of answering questions about certain concepts of time."

There are more but these are just a couple I can remember. I don't think asking a 3yo child WHY people have cars is a simple question to them. My son can tell you what the car does (it goes), that he rides to school in the car, etc but WHY do people have cars? Furthermore, I don't think expecting him to remember the exact details of a story without some prompting or guidance is reasonable either. I can tell you that my child can recite entire stories from memory that he loves to read, so he has no problem in retaining details. How many adults can always remember specific details of a story they are reading, or a meeting they just attended, or whatever, without notes or prompting? I know I can't. And really? My son knows that tomorrow means "later," and he can often tells you that means after he wakes up in the morning. But expecting him to remember the exact sequence of the seasons (yes, this was a question they asked), how many months are in a year, etc etc also seems unreasonable. What does he care at this point? Why does it matter that he knows this concept 100% at age 3?

Regardless, we just talked to the SPED coordinator (she called us b/c I guess the teacher mentioned that we had concerns) and we told her we do not agree with this psychologist's report and that we do not want it considered in developing his IEP. She accepted this and said he qualifies for services for his OT evaluation alone and that they were not even considering the psychologist's reports as justification. So that is good and I am pleased by that. They also offered to include us in the planning meeting which makes me feel immensely more comfortable.