Is EEK (early entrance to kindergarten) getting harder?
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Anonymous
| I was very upset last year because my DD missed the age cut off for testing by 1 day. Academically she was more than ready. She is currently reading on a level J at school (though she can read and comprehend much higher) but to move past this level they must pass written comp which is a lot more difficult because of fine motor. The truth is, she is very happy. She is working on writing, her teacher is amazing at sending her back to add more details to her writing, and is being asked to think about number relationships beyond k level. She loves science which has impressed me with the varied content. Most importantly, she is learning to be in a class of more than 9 kids. Her struggles, though, have been apparent in many ways I never considered. She hasn't napped since she was 3 and attended full day pre k but is still exhausted every afternoon. Not getting into k early has been fine, much to my surprise, and was probably a blessing in disguise. |
Anonymous
| My daughter is September 1st child. We did not have to test her (some teachers objected but principal was supportive). It was not hard for her at all. We only had trouble to get her to Compacted Math. She originally missed one point (did not provided enough verbal explanations). Eventually they took her in. She is absolutely fine so far. Middle of the pack and very mature. |
Anonymous
My first child was accepted EEK in 2012. My second child was not, this year - though she is every bit as ready as my first was. The requirements for passing the evaluation are much higher now than than they were in the past, and in the past, where they might have made an exception if the child did poorly on one section of the test, but passed all the others, at the school level they are not allowed to accept them unless they meet all benchmarks. I was also told that the vast majority of kids entering kindergarten, who meet the standard birthday requirements, would not be able to meet the benchmarks for those applying for EEK. |
Anonymous
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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.... |
Anonymous
| NP. We asked to meet with the principal to get the results. |
Anonymous
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. |
Anonymous
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Up until this year, we lived in a district in another state where our local elementary school had "opted out" of allowing any EEK testing because it was so over-crowded already.
Enrollment went up from the high 700s to over 900 in the few years we attended. |
Anonymous
| I don't see how EEK would make a school more overcrowded. You are either going now or a year from now. |
Anonymous
Exactly. How does this help the school? If the child is ready, they should be allowed to go. I would think this is the kind of argument that would work on appeal. I don't see MCPS letting schools make decisions other than based on the actual test scores. |
Anonymous
I think that's probably true. When we investigated EEK last year, we learned that it wasn't enough to be ready for kindergarten; your child had to be exceptionally ready in order to require the exception to the standard entrance timing. |
Anonymous
| The test isn't stsndardized. Huge problem. The difficulty depends on where your child tests. It's totally ridiculous that a system as huge as Mcps hasn't figured this out. |
Anonymous
It's a year to year thing. If your school is close to reaching the maximum number of kids allowed per classroom, and letting in a couple of EEK kids would make the school open a new classroom, then it is to MCPS 's advantage to no allow the EEK kid in because of the costs of running an additional classroom, including an additional teacher. Also, once your highly overqualified almost 6 y.o. gets to K, MCPS can evaluate that child by observation and recommend him to be moved to 1st grade, thereby eliminating one year that child will be in the MCPS system. Our Sept child didn't get into EEK. She is at least as qualified as her older sister was when she entered K several years ago. Our school is close to max on the number of K kids, and about 4-5 more would mean another classroom. So, if my kid were allowed in, the K teachers would have an unmanageable number of students or MCPS would have to open another classroom with all the additional costs thereof. Why would they want a student they don't have to take? I think I may request a meeting with the principal to find out about the scores. I am curious. In the meantime, I have found a private K for her. |
Anonymous
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You should definitely ask for a meeting. The process needs to be transparent, or they should just get rid of the policy. If you're going to allow early entrance then I think all kids should be treated equally - and a potential EEK kid should be treated no differently than a potential kid who is going to move into the neighborhood 1 week after school starts (the school can't do anything about that), making them add another class. If they give you your kid's scores, and they are past the required "threshold", then you have a great appeal case. If they are "fixing" the scores so that your child doesn't pass, well then that is just a nightmare (and a legal case too, of course). I would hope that no teacher/evaluator would be complicit in such a thing.
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Anonymous
Do you mean that each schools is administering a different test? I thought there were a standard 7 categories with certain threshold scores. Do you mind sharing your sources? |
Anonymous
| My understanding is these days a child won't pass this unless they're already on level with kids who've finished kindergarten. |