Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't see how EEK would make a school more overcrowded. You are either going now or a year from now.

It's a year to year thing. If your school is close to reaching the maximum number of kids allowed per classroom, and letting in a couple of EEK kids would make the school open a new classroom, then it is to MCPS 's advantage to no allow the EEK kid in because of the costs of running an additional classroom, including an additional teacher.

Also, once your highly overqualified almost 6 y.o. gets to K, MCPS can evaluate that child by observation and recommend him to be moved to 1st grade, thereby eliminating one year that child will be in the MCPS system.

Our Sept child didn't get into EEK. She is at least as qualified as her older sister was when she entered K several years ago. Our school is close to max on the number of K kids, and about 4-5 more would mean another classroom. So, if my kid were allowed in, the K teachers would have an unmanageable number of students or MCPS would have to open another classroom with all the additional costs thereof. Why would they want a student they don't have to take?

I think I may request a meeting with the principal to find out about the scores. I am curious. In the meantime, I have found a private K for her.

Agree with the other PP that I would definitely request a meeting.

The whole EEK process is ridiculous. We're at a FOCUS school where kids come into K barely speaking English (no judgment, just an observation), and my neighbor's DD did not get in to EEK last year. Additionally, they test these kids in April, but they don't start school until 5 months later. At that age, so much can change in 5 months!

It looks like you could in theory choose to have the main office evaluate your kids, as long as you apply before June 30. Worth doing that instead so that your kids has an extra few months?

"If a parent/guardian does not apply for early entrance to kindergarten for their child in time to attend the kindergarten orientation session at the child's home school, the application should be presented to the Elementary Integrated Curriculum Team (EIC) before the June 30 application deadline. EIC staff will contact the parent/guardian to schedule an screening assessment session for the child." http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/dtecps/earlychildhood/early-entrance.aspx

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't see how EEK would make a school more overcrowded. You are either going now or a year from now.

It's a year to year thing. If your school is close to reaching the maximum number of kids allowed per classroom, and letting in a couple of EEK kids would make the school open a new classroom, then it is to MCPS 's advantage to no allow the EEK kid in because of the costs of running an additional classroom, including an additional teacher.

Also, once your highly overqualified almost 6 y.o. gets to K, MCPS can evaluate that child by observation and recommend him to be moved to 1st grade, thereby eliminating one year that child will be in the MCPS system.

Our Sept child didn't get into EEK. She is at least as qualified as her older sister was when she entered K several years ago. Our school is close to max on the number of K kids, and about 4-5 more would mean another classroom. So, if my kid were allowed in, the K teachers would have an unmanageable number of students or MCPS would have to open another classroom with all the additional costs thereof. Why would they want a student they don't have to take?

I think I may request a meeting with the principal to find out about the scores. I am curious. In the meantime, I have found a private K for her.

Agree with the other PP that I would definitely request a meeting.

The whole EEK process is ridiculous. We're at a FOCUS school where kids come into K barely speaking English (no judgment, just an observation), and my neighbor's DD did not get in to EEK last year. Additionally, they test these kids in April, but they don't start school until 5 months later. At that age, so much can change in 5 months!

Anonymous wrote:EEK exam is ridiculous. They don't accept anybody anymore, even children who are reading and writing. The state makes MCPS have it as an option, but it is a false one. MCPS does not want children to get in anymore, unlike several years ago, where some children did get in. There is enough discretion that a teacher can just have the child barely get under the threshold in one area so that she fails. And the parents can't do anything about it because they weren't able to attend to dispute it. After all, the kid missed by just one question on just one section--the school can just say "kid must have had an off day, not our fault."

There is zero transparency in the process. The only way to even get more info is to request a meeting with the principal.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't see how EEK would make a school more overcrowded. You are either going now or a year from now.

It's a year to year thing. If your school is close to reaching the maximum number of kids allowed per classroom, and letting in a couple of EEK kids would make the school open a new classroom, then it is to MCPS 's advantage to no allow the EEK kid in because of the costs of running an additional classroom, including an additional teacher.

Also, once your highly overqualified almost 6 y.o. gets to K, MCPS can evaluate that child by observation and recommend him to be moved to 1st grade, thereby eliminating one year that child will be in the MCPS system.

Our Sept child didn't get into EEK. She is at least as qualified as her older sister was when she entered K several years ago. Our school is close to max on the number of K kids, and about 4-5 more would mean another classroom. So, if my kid were allowed in, the K teachers would have an unmanageable number of students or MCPS would have to open another classroom with all the additional costs thereof. Why would they want a student they don't have to take?

I think I may request a meeting with the principal to find out about the scores. I am curious. In the meantime, I have found a private K for her.

Agree with the other PP that I would definitely request a meeting.

The whole EEK process is ridiculous. We're at a FOCUS school where kids come into K barely speaking English (no judgment, just an observation), and my neighbor's DD did not get in to EEK last year. Additionally, they test these kids in April, but they don't start school until 5 months later. At that age, so much can change in 5 months!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have a fall bday kid and did not even try EEK. K-3 was frustrating. Started w the magnets in 4th and its been great. Heading to MS now and I am beyond glad with our decision. I would rather some boredom here and there versus having him have to grow up too quickly.

How are they growing up too quickly? So, basically you dumb down your kid to meet your needs.

Haven't dumbed anything down. He is in the grade he should be based on a cutoff. Single best decision we have made in his schooling hands down (for us).

Clearly when you are a grade ahead you grow up more quickly. Kids get family life class in 5th grade for one, 5th graders are getting cell phones and on all sort of social media. And obviously they head off to college earlier. He gets an extra year to be a kid.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The test isn't stsndardized. Huge problem. The difficulty depends on where your child tests. It's totally ridiculous that a system as huge as Mcps hasn't figured this out.

Do you mean that each schools is administering a different test? I thought there were a standard 7 categories with certain threshold scores. Do you mind sharing your sources?

Can you tell me about the 7 categories? Is this listed on the website? I was searching for this on the MCPS website, but didn't see anything.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have a fall bday kid and did not even try EEK. K-3 was frustrating. Started w the magnets in 4th and its been great. Heading to MS now and I am beyond glad with our decision. I would rather some boredom here and there versus having him have to grow up too quickly.

How are they growing up too quickly? So, basically you dumb down your kid to meet your needs.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The test isn't stsndardized. Huge problem. The difficulty depends on where your child tests. It's totally ridiculous that a system as huge as Mcps hasn't figured this out.

Do you mean that each schools is administering a different test? I thought there were a standard 7 categories with certain threshold scores. Do you mind sharing your sources?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't see how EEK would make a school more overcrowded. You are either going now or a year from now.

It's a year to year thing. If your school is close to reaching the maximum number of kids allowed per classroom, and letting in a couple of EEK kids would make the school open a new classroom, then it is to MCPS 's advantage to no allow the EEK kid in because of the costs of running an additional classroom, including an additional teacher.

Also, once your highly overqualified almost 6 y.o. gets to K, MCPS can evaluate that child by observation and recommend him to be moved to 1st grade, thereby eliminating one year that child will be in the MCPS system.

Our Sept child didn't get into EEK. She is at least as qualified as her older sister was when she entered K several years ago. Our school is close to max on the number of K kids, and about 4-5 more would mean another classroom. So, if my kid were allowed in, the K teachers would have an unmanageable number of students or MCPS would have to open another classroom with all the additional costs thereof. Why would they want a student they don't have to take?

I think I may request a meeting with the principal to find out about the scores. I am curious. In the meantime, I have found a private K for her.

Anonymous wrote:I have a fall bday kid and did not even try EEK. K-3 was frustrating. Started w the magnets in 4th and its been great. Heading to MS now and I am beyond glad with our decision. I would rather some boredom here and there versus having him have to grow up too quickly.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If they are overcrowded, yes they will be more strict. It sucks but I recommend that you fight for it. The curriculum is so ridiculously slow and my child (an Aug birthday) is bored out of her mind.

I truly do not understand this. What is too slow? If the child is a precocious reader, is she not allowed to read at her level? In math, there are things like "make an addition fact family". That can be using 5+2=7 or 326+408=734. Right?

My child is in the middle of 1st grade and the furthest they have gotten is adding/subtracting up to the sum of 6. She did that in preschool. They have not learned any time, money, fractions or simple geometry yet. It is all VERY basic adding/subtracting with number lines, groups etc.... It is extremely slow. My oldest was actually EEK in Sept and at that point they had math levels so she was in K and then moved to math2 in grade 1. So she was adding/subtracting into the thousands and doing fractions and some geometry. Time and money was taught in K. She finished 5th doing Math 7 and moved right to Algebra 1 in 6th grade. They no longer have those options. ALL kids learn math at the same pace in MCPS until grade 4-5 when they can possibly go into compact math.

As far as reading, they do not encourage you to read past certain levels. So my 1st grade daughter already hit the end of 2nd grade reading level at M and is not allowed to advance past that until 2nd grade. Whereas my other daughter's reading group kept going and going and they even moved kids around in groups to keep them accelerating. 2.0 is about learning the basics. It helps kids that have had no prior learning but it seriously hinders kids that learned in preschool and learn at home.