So dd4 will begin K next year. Does anyone have any idea what percentage of K-ers are reading/doing math at 1st grade level? 2nd grade level? Etc? I would guess there are some kids that do above grade level work, just not sure what percentage. I know they do some ability grouping at this school but I am not sure that will be enough.

I just saw the "what your child should be able to do by the end of the year" list and I am having a bit of a panic. In the literacy objectives the word reading was always written in quotation marks "reading" a book - that can't be good.

Here every child is supposed to be able to read the first 20 Dolch sight words by the *end* of Kindergarten.

Many of them can do a lot more, but that's the standard...

DeeDee

Ours also had to be able to count to 100... That was the only math requirement

DeeDee- I would also think that many can do a lot more... Any idea about the breakdown? I would guess that a fair number of kids go into K already reading- I'm trying to get an idea as to where my kid might fit in the scheme of things.....

Have you considered taking a school tour and asking what the breakdown is at the school your dd will be attending? If you're in an area that has charter schools etc, you may find that the end-of-K reading level expectations are different at different schools. Another thing you might could try is googling DRA level by grade or something like that - our kids' elementary school had a scale that related DRA level to grade level (beginning and end of year).

I also would try not to get too worried about reading level at this point - there probably are going to be kids on a huge spectrum of reading skills going into K with your dd. I'd be more interested in learning about the full day - what's taught, how it's taught etc. Reading groups and math lessons were only a very small part of the day at our kids' elementary in K-2 - the larger part of their curriculum was spent in project (group) work, writing, and going back and forth between never-ending pullouts

polarbear

I have a current kinder son. There are 20 kids in the classroom, 6 girls and 14 boys. There are 2 kids reading way beyond (guided reading level m) 2 kids reading beyond (guided reading level j) and the rest at at or below kinder standards. In math there is one child way beyond (3-4th grade level math- completing Singapore 3A) one above grade level (1st maybe 2nd grade level) and the rest at grade level.

hope this kind of answers your question

My son's class is probably similar, but I don't know, because the class is kept on the same math curriculum, and they top out at DRA 16 for instruction. There were 3 kids in the 16+ group for the 3rd quarter of the school year. I suspect at least two were comfortably above that, but it's hard to distinguish 20 vs 30 reading level when the child is reading you at level 16 book...

If you asked other parents of kids in the room, they wouldn't tell you there was one kid operating at a 3-6 grade level in math, because I keep that to myself. There's one mom that doesn't keep her afterschooling to herself, so I know that child can multiply and divide. I have no idea at what level the girl understands what she can do. I'm not questioning the mom's reporting. I simply don't know.

I also suspect that the school doesn't know. They don't test reading or math conceptual understanding beyond one grade level above the current. They don't test math computation beyond the present grade level. (they know on DS because they've done individual testing, but this is a 1 kind every few years case.)

This will also vary wildly by neighborhood and region. Local culture, age of incoming kids, type of preschool education, and parent involvement matter a lot. Our district has an end of K target, DRA8, is evidently twice the state target for reading.

In my DS5's class, I'd say more than half the kids have trouble sounding out words, even words they've been primed on, but perhaps four or five among the other half can make it through a beginner book on their own. Anything past a beginner/picture book seems like outlier territory. (Sorry, I've never bothered to study the reading level system...)

Like Geo, I'm finding it hard to say; because of my DS's strong reading skills and the fact that he spends as many hours reading as we let him, he has been exempted from the "we're sending a book home with your child" program, and I suspect what we're getting is pretty custom-fit.

In Math, our district has started adopting Common Core Math for the kindergartners. What DS5 is getting for math in kindy is way above what DS9 got four years ago. They did a lot of counting by ones, twos, fives, tens, but now they are working on single-digit addition. I don't know exactly what the benchmark is for what they are supposed to master this year, but I would bet some kids are still struggling with the counting and a few are above benchmark.

There is just a huge range in kindergarten. I don't think what the other kids can do is a primary concern for me; I did let the teachers know at the start of the year what my DS5 could do that I knew was out of the norm, and I asked them to be watchful about book selection. There was a pullout reading group with the librarian that DS loved (it got him out of the phonics instruction). It has worked nicely for the most part.

Does that help?
DeeDee

I only know the levels because my kid is the high math kid. They are now doing guided math as well. At the beginning if the year, his teachr was asked if there was anyone he can be grouped with and she laughed at him. No one is anywhere close. The girl that is in his group, is the sister of a boy in my dd8's second grade class. I am friends with the mom . If we take ds math and her dd reading, we have a fourth grader. If we take ds reading and her math, we have a second grader That is our joke lol

Yes- this has been helpful. My oldest is PG and so it was very clear that a regular school would not work. My middle kid is only 1-2 grade levels ahead going in to K. So I thought that it should not be too difficult for her in a regular classroom - I would think there were enough other kids like her so if they did some ability grouping it should be OK - but I just wanted to see if that assumption was correct. If 25% are 1 grade below, 50% on grade level, 25% 1-2 grades ahead- I think that would work- not sure if the distribution is more narrow than that. I assume a skew right given the area.

FWIW our district assumes most kids are above average, too, and sets benchmarks accordingly.

My DS5 is the only kid in the class who I'm very sure is reading more than 2 grades ahead. DS is the youngest and smallest in his class, and his math skills are good but not stunning for kindergarten; he is not a gradeskip candidate. He is obviously bored in the parts where they are learning letter sounds; but he likes other parts of being a kindergartner OK, and there was that nice reading pullout group, so for him it works. It's a half day program, which helps. I don't know that he'd like a whole day of the kindergarten curriculum; too much sitting still, too little imagining.

If you have a child who is not tolerant of boring or repetitive tasks, or a teacher who won't accommodate unusual needs (with things like book choice), it could be harder.

Some districts welcome parent input on teacher placement, and some don't; in any case, you'd probably do well to nicely let the principal and other stakeholders know, in a very matter of fact way, that your child is reading (names of books) at this point, and ask to have her placed with a teacher who might be able to accommodate that, so they have some clue what they're dealing with.

DeeDee

Based on observing now 6 different Ks now I agree it is just extremely variable what the kids can do, 2 neighboring schools can be a year or more apart in what the average student can do. Even ones with similar rankings can be extremely different.

Examples of K entry skills varying with location in our rural/regional sort of US area:

Rural public close to us: no kids reading on entry to K in the last few years, half know some letters, some don't know any letters, some count to 10, no other math skills.
Closest town public: most know all letters, some reading a few words, 1-5 per class enter fluently reading beginner reader books. Maybe a few add/subtract up to 10, count by 10s, etc.
Big suburban public an hour away: most reading a few words, some reading real books fluently. Many can add numbers under 5, a few come in doing multiplication or working with easy fractions.
"Gifted" (preference HG, then space available to well above average) private: not that different mix of kids from the upper end of suburban public, but curriculum more interesting, faster pace, teaching towards higher end, good differentiation, no rote instruction.
Non-gifted private in nearby town: more similar to town public, all have pre-k skills, 1 child per year enters reading.
Alternative style private: wide spread, class size so small no average entering skills, depends on year, usually several a couple years ahead by 1st due to individual teacher attention.

I do think it matters in a public school with an average class size what the entry skills of the other kids are. If the entry skills are to the level where it's going to be easy for the teacher to meet their end of year goals, then they have time for answering questions, other content besides reading and math, meeting the needs of the kids who are ahead. If however your child enters a school like our close rural public, where the teacher has an incredible challenge to meet their end of year goals every year and all the kids are about the same to start, then that is truly all they focus on.

In a unusually small class size or one with aids or volunteers etc, it may not matter nearly as much what the level of the other kids is.

Observe a class in person.

Polly