Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I suspect you posted both fake responses. If not name the school.

I'm 21:36 and 22:15. Why is this so hard to believe to you? What is your experience with working in a school with Pre-K? I'm curious to hear.

Anonymous wrote:I suspect you posted both fake responses. If not name the school.

Anonymous wrote:I suspect you posted both fake responses. If not name the school.

Anonymous wrote:I work in a school in North MoCo where we have Pre-K. The majority of the students go to our Kindergarten and the data is pretty shocking. It's not good. A few come in knowing their numbers and letters but not many. Pre-K is only about 3 hours a day. The morning class eats breakfast, has a little bit of academic time, goes to specials, plays outside and then eats lunch and goes home. The afternoon class comes in, eats lunch, has a little bit of academic time, goes to specials, plays outside and packs up to go home.

Is it better than nothing? Sure, I guess. But I don't see the kids who had Pre-K coming into K with any huge advantage over the kids who didn't have Pre-K, especially since absences aren't counted in Pre-K and parents get in bad habits of arriving late and keeping their kids home whenever they feel like it and then act very surprised when those same habits have consequences the next year.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I work in a school in North MoCo where we have Pre-K. The majority of the students go to our Kindergarten and the data is pretty shocking. It's not good. A few come in knowing their numbers and letters but not many. Pre-K is only about 3 hours a day. The morning class eats breakfast, has a little bit of academic time, goes to specials, plays outside and then eats lunch and goes home. The afternoon class comes in, eats lunch, has a little bit of academic time, goes to specials, plays outside and packs up to go home.

Is it better than nothing? Sure, I guess. But I don't see the kids who had Pre-K coming into K with any huge advantage over the kids who didn't have Pre-K, especially since absences aren't counted in Pre-K and parents get in bad habits of arriving late and keeping their kids home whenever they feel like it and then act very surprised when those same habits have consequences the next year.

This is exactly how it is when kids come into K at our Focus School.

It's a free program, with no consequences for not attending, so parents don't take it very seriously. Which is fine, but it's not consistent for the kids.

Also, the quality is nowhere near the quality of a good preschool. Parents with the means to afford a private pre-school would just pay for that, even if the free alternative was offered to all. The ratios for the Head Start programs are usually much higher than most of the good quality preschools in this area.

Anonymous wrote:I work in a school in North MoCo where we have Pre-K. The majority of the students go to our Kindergarten and the data is pretty shocking. It's not good. A few come in knowing their numbers and letters but not many. Pre-K is only about 3 hours a day. The morning class eats breakfast, has a little bit of academic time, goes to specials, plays outside and then eats lunch and goes home. The afternoon class comes in, eats lunch, has a little bit of academic time, goes to specials, plays outside and packs up to go home.

Is it better than nothing? Sure, I guess. But I don't see the kids who had Pre-K coming into K with any huge advantage over the kids who didn't have Pre-K, especially since absences aren't counted in Pre-K and parents get in bad habits of arriving late and keeping their kids home whenever they feel like it and then act very surprised when those same habits have consequences the next year.

Anonymous wrote:I work in a school in North MoCo where we have Pre-K. The majority of the students go to our Kindergarten and the data is pretty shocking. It's not good. A few come in knowing their numbers and letters but not many. Pre-K is only about 3 hours a day. The morning class eats breakfast, has a little bit of academic time, goes to specials, plays outside and then eats lunch and goes home. The afternoon class comes in, eats lunch, has a little bit of academic time, goes to specials, plays outside and packs up to go home.

Is it better than nothing? Sure, I guess. But I don't see the kids who had Pre-K coming into K with any huge advantage over the kids who didn't have Pre-K, especially since absences aren't counted in Pre-K and parents get in bad habits of arriving late and keeping their kids home whenever they feel like it and then act very surprised when those same habits have consequences the next year.

Anonymous wrote:Would it attract young and educated families to move there? Would it be costly for the county? As you may guess, I am far from understanding the issue of public education but curious if it's on other people's minds.

Anonymous wrote:No. There have been recent studies that show any gains made from Head Start type programs are lost by Middle School.

Also, MCPS can barely educate the kids it already has. There is not enough money for the students already IN the system. How will they pay for additional kids? Where will they put all the 4 year olds?

Not a good idea.

Anonymous wrote:I know mcps currently offers pre-k to low income students. I believe mcps is looking into the possibility of offering universal pre-k in the future.