Reply to Asking how your kid compares to classmates

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Why do parents want to know this kind of information?

The important thing is for your child to be learning. Why so much interest in how other kids are doing? In what way does the rate at which other kids are learning affect your child?
[/quote]

Duh, you want to make sure your kid is doing OK. Not a big deal. [/quote]

So that their child will have a peer reading group and generally peers on their level, or at least grade level.  So that they know the teacher is not overburdened trying to catch up a ton of below-grade kids and no time for the kids who are above grade.  That is our situation and it sucks.[/quote]

Every school has kids below level, on level and above level. I taught in one of the wealthiest schools in the country and I had two groups of below grade level students in guided reading. I still did guided reading with my on level and above level groups and had extension centers for those above.

So I'm really trying to understand the point of showing every parent the chart of the class. Unless it's trying to create competition. Or trying to "motivate" lower students? [/quote]

I think it's to spare the teachers the work of making a chart for every student.  But I think it's a privacy violation still, and the high-performing kids' parents always get distressed when they realize that the bulk of the class is below grade level and therefore the group lessons are too.[/quote]

I'm a parent of high performing kids in a school where many are not above grade level.  There is a good set of differentiated learning combined with a small class size.

[b]The charts tell me that my kid isn't alone as high performing, and instead there's a small but big enough cohort to support differentiated groups.  [/b]Out of a class of 15, about a quarter is doing much better.[/quote]

+1. I'm very glad to get a general report on the class as a whole and where my kid fits in for this reason exactly.[/quote]

this is bs.  differentiation in K would be educational malpractice[/quote]

That's funny, because every school I've looked at, public and private, does it.  Some kids are not yet reading, some are starting to read, some are reading fluently, and some are reading above grade level.  Differentiation is critical in K.[/quote]

Based on your response and other there is a lot of misunderstanding about ECE education.  None of what is being described would qualify as "differentiation". There is a wide range of normal development which can be supported without labeling or sorting kids unnecessarily.

Some of you are so insecure and desperate for validation through your kids.  K is mostly for socialization and play.  At most the academic piece is prep for 1st grade[/quote]

I wish!  How did you miss that "K is the new 1st Grade"?!  I currently have children in K and 1 and the K's spend just as much time on academics.[/quote]

That’s sad! All these pushy parents riding their kids to overachieving are really just burning their kids out.[/quote]

(1) Wanting your child to be taught based on where they are is not necessarily pushing a kid to overachieve or seeking validation through their kids.  My kid reads at a second-grade level in K.  We didn't "push" that, she just does it because she loves books and reading.  It would be a waste of time for her to spend her K year learning the sounds that the letters make and learning to decode CVC words.  By being placed in a reading group with other kids who are also reading above grade level, she is able to continue to develop her skills at an appropriate pace, rather than stagnating.  Other kids are able to develop their skills based on where they are.  The teacher also does whole-class literacy activities that are appropriate for all levels.

(2) Maybe what the schools are doing isn't technically "differentiation," but that's what they call it when you ask them how they deal with the naturally wide range of ability in kindergarten students.  I don't know what it's supposed to refer to, I only know how people are using it.

(3) People have children in grades other than K.  [/quote]

Kids are resilient.  Even in schools that claim to have "differentiation," that amounts to probably a 30-minute part of the day when they have a reading group with their same-level peers.  School is a *collective* experience (whether private or public) which means that not everything will be perfect for your individual child.  If your child is a little bored and uncomfortable during phonics instruction, that's fine, she'll live and maybe even be better for it.  (And she might even enjoy the way they teach it, you could be surprised.) Likewise my bottom-quintile kids will likely experience some anxiety and stress because things are moving quickly for him and he sees that many other kids are more advanced. That's fine for him too.  As long as there are plenty of things in the day that engage all kids equally (and there are), the kids will be fine.  [/quote]

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