I got SO tired of hearing that nonsense to the point that we are now in our 4th year of homeschooling. Total baloney! I taught for quite a number of years and children should have access to all levels of books NOT until the teacher is able to assess them all. Total balhooey and makes me SO angry that there are SO many teachers out there with this opinion. When my DS8 was in Montessori PreK when he was 4 - he was already reading books and I will never, ever forget the day he was SO excited about sharing a new book to his teacher. The LUNATIC actually got upset at him and told me in front of him that we shouldn't allow him to read books at this level because what was he going to do in the classroom - for months after that my DS was actually scared to go to bookstores and get new books because he thought his teacher would get upset at him again. I would honestly sit down again with the teacher and ask someone else to sit in on the meeting like the Reading specialist if there is one and see if there was a way that she can get the assessment completed now