Anonymous wrote:

This is exactly what we were told in our post test meeting. And, from the examples we were given of questions on the test, I actually believe it. When I talked to a k teacher friend about our post meeting, she was extremely surprised at the information early entrance kindergartener a were expected to know.

My DD took the test in May 2012 and did not pass. No post-test meeting, and I did not have any of the information about 7 subject areas, etc. They took my DD away and then brought her back to me 30-40 min later, with no explanation (other than what I could glean from her). Then 2-3 weeks later, a letter arrived in the mail stating that she would not be offered early entrance. Granted, I did not contest this or demand more information.

I was on the fence about starting her early anyway. She is physically big/tall and advanced, and seemed as "ready" as my older DD when she started (and quite frankly, more ready than plenty other children who we saw at orientation). I was on the fence because I didn't see a huge interest in sitting down for longer periods of time and working on letters/etc. Her ability to sit still and work on things like this definitely increased by a large margin over the last year. I just hope she won't be bored when she starts this fall.

Anonymous wrote:
They dumbed down the education for all the illegal kids entering who don't speak English and are as dumb as can be. No child left behind and amnesty will mean Math 1.5 soon, lol.

Anonymous wrote:The K curriculum is incredibly easy. In fact, MCPS should be embarrassed its do bad. Its even worse that MCPS discourages kids from starting early and in some cases pushes red shirting. I honestly think that part of the way MCPS operates is to increase the likelihood that as many kids as possible already know 2 years ahead of the material so the system looks good with a crappy curriculum and variable quality of teachers. There is still a good deal of sitting in K even though its not as bad as 1 st grade. They are looking to see if your child will sit still and behave while doing boring activities.

The only thing to prep would be to have your child familiar with the way MCPS gives assignments and worksheets. If you are coming from Montessori there are a few things that they wouldn't have seen before such as tally charts etc. These are very simple for a kid to learn but keep in mod that MCPS is all about kids repeating the same thing over and over again.

Anonymous wrote:The K curriculum is incredibly easy. In fact, MCPS should be embarrassed its do bad. Its even worse that MCPS discourages kids from starting early and in some cases pushes red shirting. I honestly think that part of the way MCPS operates is to increase the likelihood that as many kids as possible already know 2 years ahead of the material so the system looks good with a crappy curriculum and variable quality of teachers. There is still a good deal of sitting in K even though its not as bad as 1 st grade. They are looking to see if your child will sit still and behave while doing boring activities.

The only thing to prep would be to have your child familiar with the way MCPS gives assignments and worksheets. If you are coming from Montessori there are a few things that they wouldn't have seen before such as tally charts etc. These are very simple for a kid to learn but keep in mod that MCPS is all about kids repeating the same thing over and over again.

Anonymous wrote: I just hope she won't be bored when she starts this fall.

Anonymous wrote:The K curriculum is incredibly easy. In fact, MCPS should be embarrassed its do bad. .

Her ability to sit still and work on things like this definitely increased by a large margin over the last year. I just hope she won't be bored when she starts this fall.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Be careful OP with redshirting, your kid might not be as advanced as you think as there will be kids two years older. Also if you are thinking of a gifted program in the future wouldn't you be disappointed if your child missed the cut off by like 2 point. One of my friend's had a child that started early and missed the highly gifted program cut off by two points.

Maybe parents of kids who test don't really think they are so incredibly advanced..but just as ready for Kindergarten as another child born 10 days earlier. And as to missing a center spot (there is no such thing as missing by 2 points since it is not just test based), maybe for a younger kid they will get what they need from a neighborhood school. Maybe they would miss it either year. About 97% of MCPS kids do not attend centers.