Monday, May 28, 2007

Kindergarten Readiness-Entry

There is an article in the Express-Times that is not specifically about Nazareth, but could easily be. It is in regard to the age requirement for K. The conversation seems to be well-timed as K registration, testing, and the decision to place one's child in the all-day K at Shafer are all now taking place.

The article appears to have originated based on a parent's complaint that their child didn't meet the age requirement (read the article here). This year Easton decided to set the cut-off on the first day of school, which is August 27, as opposed to September 1, which it and many other schools use as a default. The child turns five on August 28 and misses by one day.

No matter what date is set this is going to be arbitrary and students are going to be near the cut-off, some will just make it, others won't.

The parent in this article has contacted an attorney, questioned the ability of the District to make an assessment of her child, and begun testing for early entry, but the parent doesn't believe the testing is fair because it is essentially testing for giftedness. It would also appear the parent contacted the newspaper or the writer would not have been aware of the plight, but that is only an assumption on my part.

Having had one child born on September 1, and I forget what the cut-off was at the time, I can personally say it was a no-brainer for me - wait a year (and our daughter was eligible to enroll).

I have no regrets with the decision and I expect the real benefits of the choice to be more pronounced in the coming years as she gets into higher grades and the extra year of maturity should help her emotionally, mentally, and physically.

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