I would be suspicious of any preschool director making such unfounded statements.

I suspect it may be to keep the parents at bay who are hounding her to get the kids reading in preschool.

The preschools that I am familiar with may not "teach reading", but they certainly encourage pre-reading skills, including using sight words in their classrooms. I can't imagine any preschool believing what was told to OP, much less telling a prospective parent anything of the sort.

I'd run from that preschool, OP.

Also general comment is NEVER trust what a preschool teacher or director tells you about MCPS.

This is not true at all. My child taught himself to read after learning letter sounds etc in preschool and was capped on his reading level in MCPS for 3 years. His teachers were thrilled since nothing to do . He brought books from home but did work on writing.

Of all the reasons not to introduce pre-reading skills, I can't think of a more stupid one. Stay far away from this preschool, because no student can thrive with an unintelligent director.

Both my children came into MCPS K or 1st grade reading fluently. They were allowed to bring books from home. It's true that public school teachers have difficulty giving one on one attention to all their students, and customizing the curriculum for each, but this should never be a reason not to engage in age-appropriate activities. And pre-reading SHOULD be introduced in preK.

^^ me again. But I think it's weird what preschool said. I would have preferred if they gave the answer above.

MCPS seems to get that kids will come in at all levels, and in our elementary school that is accommodated for rather well (a Focus school). Maybe the point they are making is early reading is not an academic marker and the trend is for preschools to not focus on reading, but rather be play-based (probably with some phonics learning while there). Kids learn really quickly in K, so no need to get them reading beforehand.

At our FCPS school they said don't focus on it because they think it doesn't help and these kids often can do rote reading but not great comprehension. Instead they said things like reading to your kid nightly and playing word games like rhyming actually have better outcomes in long term reading success.

I think MCPS is thrilled..that means they don't have to worry about the reading scores for that kid. I would have concerns about that preschool not because I think reading has to be taught in preschool but because of their reasoning.

Anonymous wrote:I was touring preschools for my daughter this eeek and one director said that they don't focus on reading because "MCpS doesn't want kids who are reading entering kindergarten since not all kids will be and it makes teachers jobs difficult." Is this just a preschools excuse for not working in reading or is this really the case in MCPS, because that does not sound right at all....

he is probably right. the more diverse group you have, the more resources you need to accommodate different levels. you can see what MSPS is doing to its special programs (i.e., magnets) to see where they are going. it's all about "being inclusive/cost cutting vs serving students needs/abilities". welcome to MCPS.

Yeah, no. My oldest is at a Focus School with a really wide socio-economic span, but a lot of kids come in already reading and they get appropriate support.

I'll say this, though, not all of the kids who come in reading are the middle class white kids from high quality preschools since a lot of those preschools are (appropriately) play based. Many of those kids don't read when they arrive, but learn quickly.

Excuse typos-- trying to type from my phone, sorry!

Bs.

It's just someone who had no clue.

I was touring preschools for my daughter this eeek and one director said that they don't focus on reading because "MCpS doesn't want kids who are reading entering kindergarten since not all kids will be and it makes teachers jobs difficult." Is this just a preschools excuse for not working in reading or is this really the case in MCPS, because that does not sound right at all....