Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sounds similar to my kids' WJ feeder ES.

When I used to compare DD's K experience to my friend's DD's K experience at a Title 1 school, I found the differences in the social activities and peer groups more than the academics. Also in her daughter's case, she found it difficult to find a group of intellectual peers in her K class of only 15-16 kids. Her daughter went into K reading and writing and was taken out for those activities. She had 3 years of preK before entering K while several of her classmates had not so she was more ready for K than the average. In my daughter's class of 25, she had no difficulty finding her peer group (she was probably below average in or ES-she was not reading or writing).

I do understand your concern but if you go to the MoCty website and look at the curriculum, you can see for yourself what is expected at each grade, by quarter. This is county-wide, so as long as your child is getting that curriculum, the academics are probably comparable.

For what it's worth, this has not been our experience with a MD focus school. While there is a wide variety in terms of levels of preparation, my daughter entered kindy reading and writing, and there were 4-5 other kids at about her level, with 1-2 above her. Interestingly enough, the other kids who entered reading and writing were not all middle class white kids. The middle class white kids primarily came out of play-based, part-time, preschool programs. So, they had all the building blocks but were learning to put them together in kindergarten. The kids who entered already knowing those skills tended to be working class, from immigrant families.

Anonymous wrote:Sounds similar to my kids' WJ feeder ES.

When I used to compare DD's K experience to my friend's DD's K experience at a Title 1 school, I found the differences in the social activities and peer groups more than the academics. Also in her daughter's case, she found it difficult to find a group of intellectual peers in her K class of only 15-16 kids. Her daughter went into K reading and writing and was taken out for those activities. She had 3 years of preK before entering K while several of her classmates had not so she was more ready for K than the average. In my daughter's class of 25, she had no difficulty finding her peer group (she was probably below average in or ES-she was not reading or writing).

I do understand your concern but if you go to the MoCty website and look at the curriculum, you can see for yourself what is expected at each grade, by quarter. This is county-wide, so as long as your child is getting that curriculum, the academics are probably comparable.