Reply to How to “redshirt” in DC?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I agree with having a standard and not making exceptions. But I wish dcps would gradually scoot these cutoffs back, maybe even just a few weeks a year. Half the kids in dcps are not emotionally ready for what’s asked of them in prek4 and K.

And now the gap between what private can offer in terms of developmental appropriateness is getting even bigger. In my neighborhood the private school kids will be several months older on average — and enjoy a gentle acceleration without the pressure of testing. [/quote]

Agreed, though our experience with PK4 was that it was very age appropriate and a great fit for our kid with a summer birthday. I think DCPS needs to look critically at both the K curriculum and the way K teachers are trained and apply some of the lessons from the PK program to turn it into a true transitional program that focuses on shifting kids from ECE to elementary and helping them build socio-emotional maturity, patience, and interpersonal skills.

PK teachers in DCPS almost all have masters in early childhood education. K teachers generally do not, and many K teachers float between K, 1st, and 2nd grade to help schools accommodate fluctuating IB enrollment into the K cohort. This can exacerbate the issue of K teachers who have unrealistic expectations, developmentally, because they may be accustomed to a classroom of 7 or 8 year olds and then have to come in and teach a cohort of 5 year olds, even some 4 year olds.

I have also never understood the point of making the cutoff September 30th. It's hard for the kids, even just psychologically. Kids with late August and September birthdays are always hyper-aware of the fact that they start school a different age than peers. Even for kids who are perfectly on target developmentally, I think this can become a source of anxiety. Why not make the cut off August 1st or August 15th, so all kids are the same age on the first day of school? I don't get why this wouldn't be the obvious choice.

Anyway, put me in the camp of people who thinks we need to fix kindergarten so that it's age appropriate and serves the interests of more kids, rather than accepting that kindergarten is often too academic with unrealistic expectations and then just leaving it up to parents to realize this in advance and redshirt accordingly. [/quote]

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