These days, if your child starts K not knowing all letter sounds, letter names, and numbers, he or she may qualify for remedial services. It's not that K teachers expect entering students to be able to read novels but they expect them to be able to read beginning readers.
100% untrue in my district in both schools my children have attended (one of which was very high-scoring, while the other is low-scoring). In both my kids' K classes, there were many kids not knowing all letters--considered totally normal--and very few readers at all. I'm in a city with a weird mix of highly educated people and the poor, though.
