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Anonymous wrote:Has anyone successfully appealed the MCPS early entrance into kindergarten assessment exam to get your child into kindergarten?

MCPS has an age cutoff for 5-years old by September 1, but will test kids that turn 5 between September 2nd to October 15th. My daughter will turn 5 on September 15th, two weeks after the cutoff. She has been in the school aged room of her daycare for about six-months because they thought she was ready to move up. We were all shocked when we found out she didn’t pass the exam. She is social-emotionally mature, can independently complete multi-step directions, passed the mathematics and letter naming parts of the early entrance exam, but did not pass the reading/writing part. Has anyone successfully appealed MCPS to get your child into kindergarten? What supporting documentation did you submit? Are there any buzzwords/phases that are helpful to use? Is it worth mentioning her older sibling already attends the school? Any help is greatly appreciated! My daughter is ready to start school and these technicalities are heartbreaking for her continued education.

The test expects the child to already know how to read practically which is stupid. No actual kindergartener could pass the test. And they make it impossible to contact anyone and I am almost 100% positive that the email that they send you too is bullshit

The point of the test is not to find kids who theoretically could handle kindergarten a bit early if given the chance. The point is to identify the very small number of kids who are so advanced that their learning will be actively harmed by being forced to wait another year. Thus, it measures mastery of end of kindergarten objectives. They don't care about what statutory age kindergarteners can or can't do. The point is to identify the extreme outliers, not the "kind of bright." Many parents don't seem to get this.

This. A girl in my DC’s pre-K class missed the cutoff by 2 days and by all accounts she knew her letter sounds, etc. better than my DC and many of the other kids in the class. But she wasn’t actually reading yet so didn’t pass the test.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Has anyone successfully appealed the MCPS early entrance into kindergarten assessment exam to get your child into kindergarten?

MCPS has an age cutoff for 5-years old by September 1, but will test kids that turn 5 between September 2nd to October 15th. My daughter will turn 5 on September 15th, two weeks after the cutoff. She has been in the school aged room of her daycare for about six-months because they thought she was ready to move up. We were all shocked when we found out she didn’t pass the exam. She is social-emotionally mature, can independently complete multi-step directions, passed the mathematics and letter naming parts of the early entrance exam, but did not pass the reading/writing part. Has anyone successfully appealed MCPS to get your child into kindergarten? What supporting documentation did you submit? Are there any buzzwords/phases that are helpful to use? Is it worth mentioning her older sibling already attends the school? Any help is greatly appreciated! My daughter is ready to start school and these technicalities are heartbreaking for her continued education.

The test expects the child to already know how to read practically which is stupid. No actual kindergartener could pass the test. And they make it impossible to contact anyone and I am almost 100% positive that the email that they send you too is bullshit

The point of the test is not to find kids who theoretically could handle kindergarten a bit early if given the chance. The point is to identify the very small number of kids who are so advanced that their learning will be actively harmed by being forced to wait another year. Thus, it measures mastery of end of kindergarten objectives. They don't care about what statutory age kindergarteners can or can't do. The point is to identify the extreme outliers, not the "kind of bright." Many parents don't seem to get this.

Anonymous wrote:I've never heard of an appeal being successful. MCPS is allowed to set its own criteria and they say a child has to pass all parts of the exam. Your daughter didn't. There is no "right" to attend kindergarten at taxpayer expense before statutory age.

This. You need to calm down, OP or you are going to really mess up your kid.

She did not test in for a waiver. Have her go on time for MoCo next year. Her birthday is after the cut off. She will start k when she qualifies.

Let her play and develop for another year. And again, calm down or you are going to really mess up her self image.

Anonymous wrote:Has anyone successfully appealed the MCPS early entrance into kindergarten assessment exam to get your child into kindergarten?

MCPS has an age cutoff for 5-years old by September 1, but will test kids that turn 5 between September 2nd to October 15th. My daughter will turn 5 on September 15th, two weeks after the cutoff. She has been in the school aged room of her daycare for about six-months because they thought she was ready to move up. We were all shocked when we found out she didn’t pass the exam. She is social-emotionally mature, can independently complete multi-step directions, passed the mathematics and letter naming parts of the early entrance exam, but did not pass the reading/writing part. Has anyone successfully appealed MCPS to get your child into kindergarten? What supporting documentation did you submit? Are there any buzzwords/phases that are helpful to use? Is it worth mentioning her older sibling already attends the school? Any help is greatly appreciated! My daughter is ready to start school and these technicalities are heartbreaking for her continued education.

The test expects the child to already know how to read practically which is stupid. No actual kindergartener could pass the test. And they make it impossible to contact anyone and I am almost 100% positive that the email that they send you too is bullshit

Anonymous wrote:Just think about it this way. Right now you're paying for an extra year of preschool or private kindergarten. But you're also getting 14 more years before you have to pay for college

How does that make sense? You can take that extra year of preschool and put it in a 529 for college.

Just think about it this way. Right now you're paying for an extra year of preschool or private kindergarten. But you're also getting 14 more years before you have to pay for college

I read this a year late but I had my kid start a year early and we did the appeal process. We had to send in multiple videos of our kid writing, reading, doing math etc. it was a lot of work on the teacher for our daycare. But she herself knew our kid was ready for K. She knows my kid sometimes gets shy around new people so kid was probably shy around the tester.

The daycare teacher had to provide report cards as well as videos, samples of all work done. My kid actually had to prove to have a 1st grade reading and writing level to get into K early. We did get in but also were told that there is a 30 day grace period and at any point if our kid did not keep up they would be withdrawn from the class. Our kid is now in 1st grade and is excelling.

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Anonymous wrote:There's a cutoff for a reason, and exceptions should be made for exceptional kids. OP's daughter sounds bright, not not exceptionally so. She wants to be an exception to the exception.

OP daughter is bright enough to go. The exam is arbitrary and most principals don't support it because they know those families will go private for a few years and less kids for them.

I agree!

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Anonymous wrote:Why do you want to send her early, OP?

She doesn’t want to pay for another year or childcare/ preK

Child will be 5. They should go to K. Why pay for an additional year of preK when child should go to K? She is better off paying for a private K vs. preK if MCPS will not allow child to go.

Well, no…by the cutoff, she will not be 5 and she objectively should not be allowed to go, barring extenuating circumstances…which are not present here.

Child will turn five within a few weeks of starting school. Of course, she should be allowed to go. Are you trying to justify holding back your child by telling others they need to hold back theirs?

…? What? You’re not a very good debater. Is your argument that the cutoff is the cutoff and no one should vary from it, or the opposite? Because if the argument is that the cutoff is a hard cutoff for a reason (such that no one should redshirt a kid whose birthday is in august / only a couple weeks before the cutoff) then the inverse is true; no one should get to jump grades just because their birthday is a few weeks after the cutoff. Did you read the original post?

I don't think any child should be allowed to be held back. If they have special needs or delays that should be more reason to go to K where they can get an IEP and services, especially when those parents holding back often are not having their kids in outside services to catch them up. MCPS has early entry till 10/15 so it's allowable to for OP child to attend K. Yes, I read the OP. I have a child who was in the same situation. I understand it way better than you.

It’s only allowable to enter early IF the child can pass the test. OP’s child can’t. So she is t eligible to start school early. She will go on time unless her parents choose private.

The test is subjective so the child was probably set up to fail. Hopefully her parents will go private.

Spoken like a hilariously stereotypical DCUM parent.

Lol +1

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Anonymous wrote:I don’t get why you would want to. It isn’t a rush to finish k-12. Better for her be the smartest in the class than middle of the pack

+1

You can still be the smartest and one of the younger students. What kid wants to be 18 all of senior year and be the oldest? Someone hast be the oldest, someone has to be the youngest. In HS, with a lot of elective and math classes, the kids are mixed age anyway. Mine will be in an elective with seniors as a freshman.

What? First of all, your premise is wrong…it was great to be one of the very first ones to turn 18 (and 16, and 21…) - that is pretty universally seen as a great thing.

But also, that’s not what we’re talking about here. OP’s kid would turn 17 at the very beginning of senior year, and wouldn’t turn 18 until she’s already moved into college

It’s not great but you tell yourself that. You are lecturing someone with a September kid. I understand all about it. My kid will turn 18 a few week into college. No big deal.

It is universally seen as better to turn 19 a few weeks into college versus 18. Lol.

I actually avoided peers in college who were out of sync with me age-wise. It usually suggested they had different priorities (drinking, jail time, community college).

That’s kind of sad and nonsensical at the same time. Why would you assume their priorities were negative because they didn’t follow the American path?

For European students it’s common to take a gap year. Harvard has about 20% of students taking a gap year. Working for nonprofits, traveling, helping in developing countries in whatever they plan on majoring in like teaching, agriculture, engineering. A lifetime experience .

We aren't in Europe and gap years are only for rich kids.

Zero college students are asking or hand wringing about whether their friend that sits next to them in organic chem is 18,19, or 20. They don’t ask or care. The only time age matters to college students is when they want someone to buy them alcohol

+1. Or when all their friends are able to go to the bars and they can’t, without getting a fake ID

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Anonymous wrote:I don’t get why you would want to. It isn’t a rush to finish k-12. Better for her be the smartest in the class than middle of the pack

+1. This isn't a race. With everyone redshirting, she would be significantly younger. Lots of kids are "bored" in MCPS academically whether they start early, late, or are on time. She will be fine.

Depending on the school, not a lot of kids are held back a year by their parents. Being younger is not always a bad thing. Kids are adults at 18. Holding them back to keep them a child a year longer when their peers are going ahead to college makes no sense.

She isn’t being held back. What is so hard to understand about this. Her birthday is AFTER the cut off. Someone’s birthday is always going to be close to cut off. It is what it is. But in the long run, it is always better to not appeal to send early. Supplement at home if needed, but maturity going into college is a good thing

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Anonymous wrote:I don’t get why you would want to. It isn’t a rush to finish k-12. Better for her be the smartest in the class than middle of the pack

+1

You can still be the smartest and one of the younger students. What kid wants to be 18 all of senior year and be the oldest? Someone hast be the oldest, someone has to be the youngest. In HS, with a lot of elective and math classes, the kids are mixed age anyway. Mine will be in an elective with seniors as a freshman.

What? First of all, your premise is wrong…it was great to be one of the very first ones to turn 18 (and 16, and 21…) - that is pretty universally seen as a great thing.

But also, that’s not what we’re talking about here. OP’s kid would turn 17 at the very beginning of senior year, and wouldn’t turn 18 until she’s already moved into college

It’s not great but you tell yourself that. You are lecturing someone with a September kid. I understand all about it. My kid will turn 18 a few week into college. No big deal.

It is universally seen as better to turn 19 a few weeks into college versus 18. Lol.

I actually avoided peers in college who were out of sync with me age-wise. It usually suggested they had different priorities (drinking, jail time, community college).

That’s kind of sad and nonsensical at the same time. Why would you assume their priorities were negative because they didn’t follow the American path?

For European students it’s common to take a gap year. Harvard has about 20% of students taking a gap year. Working for nonprofits, traveling, helping in developing countries in whatever they plan on majoring in like teaching, agriculture, engineering. A lifetime experience .

We aren't in Europe and gap years are only for rich kids.

Zero college students are asking or hand wringing about whether their friend that sits next to them in organic chem is 18,19, or 20. They don’t ask or care. The only time age matters to college students is when they want someone to buy them alcohol

Anonymous wrote:You are being short sighted… do you really want your daughter being a 13 year old high school freshman? 17 year old college freshman?

I was a 13 year old high school freshman and a 17 year old college freshman because my parents started me on time. It was fine, really it was. I won’t lie, I enjoyed my semester of study abroad for a lot of reasons, being able to drink legally at a bar was one of them. It kind of sucked coming back to the US and having to wait another 6 months to go out for a drink but it wasn’t that awful.

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My child's day care was a pre school. The kids learned their sounds and started writing at pre school. Some kids were learning to read and do basic math. The program mixed play and learning so that the kids were ready for K but had a good time.

There are plenty of reasons to hold kids back. Parents know their kids best so why don’t we trust them to do what they think is best for their kid. I am sure that there are some who think that by holding the kid back they will benefit in sports or that other kids will look up to them because they are more mature but that is probably a smaller group then most think. I would guess that most are kids with some type of issue that the parents think needs some time or attention.

Anonymous wrote:You are being short sighted… do you really want your daughter being a 13 year old high school freshman? 17 year old college freshman?

They will only be 13 for a few weeks. Mine was that age.. Not a big deal at all.

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Anonymous wrote:Op, if your child is not even in preK at the moment how could you possibly think they are ready for K. There are kids who have had 3 years of academic preK plus the socialization that comes with that...while your kid has been in a daycare. Seems like you didn't really do a lot of research on this as the kids who are admitted early, as many pps note, are surpassing K expectations and harmed if not allowed to start K. This means they can read well likely and are doing low level maths AND have the social and emotional maturity to keep up.

Day care is the same as preschool.

LOL. No.

You don't have much experience with early childhood care facilities if you don't understand there is significant overlap between daycare and preschool for 3-5 year olds. In many cases it is simply a branding strategy for a daycare to call some of its classes preschool.

“Significant overlap” and “the same as” are not the same thing. Sorry. Words have meanings.

Sorry you're a weirdo obsessed with convincing internet strangers that your child's posh preschool is totally not daycare.