Need a teachers help here.It seems I have to make choice about my child's education.

A little background: She is six, she was in K last year at a Charter school. It seamed to me that early on in the year her teacher started talking me into retaining my daughter. She said she was struggling with reading. While I agree reading has been difficult I didn't see that she wasn't learning it. I don't see that she is behind the average child of her age group. She knows all her letters and can read simple two and three letter words.

ON Wednesday we made the decision to transfer to another school, feeling that the charter school is not the right place for us. When I went to register her there was confusion in her records as to wither or not she was to go to first or repeat K. Her records said to advance her but her report card said to retain her. I decided to advance her.

When we went to open house last night we were stopped and told that the charter school had contacted them and said that my daughter was to go to k again. They said she was to be retained at Parents request. NOT TRUE! The principle said she would call the school this morning and straighten it out.

She just called and said now they are saying it was by teacher request. So they want to put her in K.

I'm so confused. I'm sure I could make a big fuss and get her in 1st but what if the teacher is right and she isn't ready. But what if she can do it and we just held her back for no reason?

Would it be more damaging to push her when she isn't ready then it is to just hold her back if she is ready?
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personally- i would let her do K again- why not? I think- no I mean I KNOW if i had it to do over again- I would have waited a whole year to send my son to K if i knew what I knew now... but this is just MHO....I think as her mom- you know best- not the teacher... I am sure that was not a helpful answer- LOL i apologize.
when is her birthday? is it close to Sept? I think kids benefit from starting later as opposed to later. since she is new to the school this would give her time to get adjusted too- with out alot of pressure KWIM?

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Well I'm not a teacher but just my thoughts...........
Seems to me it would be more damaging to push her when she isn't ready than to hold her back if she is ready. Could the new school test her and then decide where she should be placed?

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Those are pretty much my feelings. I'm just meeting a lot of resistance from my mom and husband. My mother thinks she should got to first no matter what. Her Dad thinks she should go because if we hold her back we would be teaching her it's ok to not try.

I wonder about testing her? Good thought.

I was going to suggest testing. If you think she's ready, have the school she's transferring to give her their kindergarten assessments to see where she stands as far as their requirements are. If they think, based on how she does on that test, that she needs to repeat K then that's what I'd do. But if she scores well enough to go ahead to first, then that's what I'd do. Sounds like you want the best for your child so sit down with the administation, find out why they think she needs to be held back and then ask for further testing so that you can make the best decision for your DD. Good luck!

I would also advise testing. My children neither one were early readers and probably were no further along that your dd (if I remember right...they're teens now so my memory is a bit fuzzy), but by 3rd grade they were reading WAY above grade level and at the top of the class when tested on reading. So I'm not sure reading early is necessarily a sign of success in school.

My advice is to have her tested. Meanwhile make sure you're reading to her EVERY day and quite a bit. I'm a firm believer that children who are read to are the ones who themselves become good readers. I read constantly to my kids, so once they DID start reading, it was easy for them to catch on because they already had such good vocabularies. HTH

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I will ask for testing. Thanks so much.

I agree with everyone. See if you can get them to give her a test and see what is best for her. I don't rememeber reading in Kindergarten but my memory is fuzzy as well. Sounds like maybe the charter school has higher standards than public schools I dunno though. Good Luck and I am sure you will make the best decision for her.

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Ps.... Florida school systems are obsessed with FCAT scores. My mom taught in Florida for a couple years (a year on each side of the state) and it was always working on FCAT things.

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I didn't learn to read in kindergarten but that was oh so many years ago. Their requirements and expectations have changed so much since then and kids are expected to be reading some by the end of kindergarten. As well as writing and doing basic addition and subtraction. All I learned to do in kindergarten was tie my shoes, to recognize the ABCs, to count to 100 as well as sleep and play!