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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I am the Op. My rising first grader is studious and shy. She is reading and writing in K. In DC they report reading ability by letter, not sure if it is the same in MoCo? She is reading at level C which is above grade. She is a quiet teacher's pet type. Her younger sister is only 4, it's hard to say. She is less shy, however. Younger one is receiving speech therapy for a phonological delay. I assume (but do not know) that these services are available in MoCo? As far as environment - heck, kids are threatening each other with knives at our inbound ES on the hill (see thread "dump the cluster" under DC public school forum). I guess my standards are fairly low?[/quote]

I don't know if the letter scales are different, but in my child's kindergarten class there is a group reading at level A/B/C, a group reading around level D-G, and a group that is reading at H and later. [/quote]

We moved from DC to MoCo for the schools.  To the OP (with respect):  get out of DC.  I agree with the pp directly above, there are K kids in MoCo that are reading at an D-H (and some above).  Your child sounds great - studious, quiet and sweet.  In DC, these kids are all but ignored b/c they are considered "fine."  Your child would most likely be reading at a higher level in MoCo b/c the teachers will want her to thrive.  Also, the services for your younger child will be more robust in Moco.  I'm glad we moved and I think you will be too.  Good luck.[/quote]

Agreed.  We also left DC and came to MoCo for the schools.  Our oldest was also an early and voracious reader -- I don't remember the letter, but chapter books at 4, finished all of Harry Potter at 6.   In DC we were in a well-regarded charter, but they didn't know what to do with her, and she ended up sitting alone in a corner with books much of the time.  We asked for and got an IEP, but they ultimately could not meet her needs -- it would have been unreasonable for us to expect it given that some kids through 1st grade were still learning their letters.  In MoCo (W Cluster ES), she was again in the highest reading group in 2nd grade, but she was with a few other kids, which made a huge difference all by itself.  For the first time, she could learn how to comprehend, appreciate, critique what she was reading, and have grade-level peers to help her in that process.  Our second was also a very early reader, but is shy, and for a time was not in the top reading group.  His teacher that year (kindergarten) recognized that he was capable of more, so she pulled him aside to work on comprehension and other skills, so that he could join the top reading group.  We loved our kids' school in DC, but given the wide gulf in reading skills in the early years, this kind of attention could never have been given to the kids already reading at a high level.

We didn't know it when we moved here, but MoCo also has a second level of GT programming -- there is a GT program in each school, and a county-level GT program (highly gifted center or HGC) that kids can test into -- takes the top 2-3% of the kids.  So whereas in DC, our kids struggled to find grade-level academic peers, they had them in spades in MoCo (both tested into HGC), which has given them challenges they were missing.  We miss many things about our community in DC (for one, diversity was much better), but for our kids, academically, it was the right thing to do.  We have been very pleased with our kids' experience overall.  Good luck![/quote]

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