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Getting ready for Voluntary Pre-K, Aaaargh!
We just started researching pre-K for my three-year-old Ana Isabel.
Talk about daunting. There's hundreds of programs out there. So we've started by asking for recommendations from friends. We plan to visit some sites. And then we turned to the Internet.
That's when I came across the State of Florida Department of Education Voluntary Prekindergarten (VPK) Program Provider Kindergarten Readiness Rate Website.
A mouthful, for sure. But basically it rates VPK programs. It measures how well VPK providers prepare children for kindergarten using state standards.
You can check out one program, all providers in a city or the entire state for that matter.
I did a quick check of those that were recommended to us. It raised a question or two about one. But we'll still visit, ask those question and then make a decision.
Just for fun, I downloaded all the VPK providers in Broward and Palm Beach counties and then did a quick ranking.
The top score, or readiness rate, is 300, That means 100 percent of the students in that program were deemed ready for kindergarten. Those programs with low scores are required to provide an improvement plan to the state. And some programs, while listed, didn't have enough students for the state to measure.
Take a look. See how the program where you send your kid, or want to send or kid, did.
Broward County Palm Beach County
If nothing else, it's a starting point for questions for your VPK provider.
Gretchen Day-Bryant has a son in high school and a daughter in middle school. She’s lived to tell about the struggles of juggling little kids and work...
Joy Oglesby has an infant daughter and a sister 13 years her junior, whom she babies to the now-adult...
Cindy Kent Fort Lauderdale mother of three. Her kids span in ages from teenager to 20s...
Rafael Olmeda and his wife welcomed their first son in Feb. 2009, and he's helping raise two teenage stepdaughters...
Lois Solomon lives in Boca Raton with her husband and three daughters...
Anne Vasquez is the Online Editor in charge of overseeing SunSentinel.com. She is the mother of a 5-year-old boy and a newborn daughter.
Georgia East is the parent of a five-year-old girl, who came into the world weighing 1 pound, 13 ounces...
Brittany Wallman is the mother of Creed, 13, and Lily, 6, and is married...
Chris Tiedje is the Social Media Coordinator, and father of two boys and a girl all under the age of seven.
Comments
WOW, FCAT for 4 year olds. Who would have thought! Let me sign up for the A rated preschool. Actually it is kind of funny how you have more options about where to send your children for Pre-K then the rest of the public school education. I could choose any preschool to send my son to, but he is required to go to the school in his neighborhood. Strange
Posted by: Great | November 20, 2008 8:26 PM
"Great" - no child is "required" to go to the schools in his/her neighborhood. There is such things as magnet, charter and private schools. In Palm Beach here it's called "Schools of Choice"
As a mom of a child who is currently in a VPK program, and looking towards Kindergarten, you can't even imagine how daunting it compared to VPK - because basically you are making a decision that you will likely live with for 6 years, versus just one year.
Due to the housing situation, we are stuck in a subdivision with a elementary school I'm not 100% happy with so we are looking at all the "Schools of Choice" and crossing our fingers that we do well in the lottery.
I hadn't seen this list last year, but it's good to know that my daughter's VPK scored a 288.
Posted by: Erin | November 21, 2008 8:53 AM
How early do I need to get to the sign up center? It opens at noon, does a line form by 10AM?
Thanks for the help,
Chase
Posted by: Chase Williamson | February 27, 2009 11:47 AM
How early do I need to get to the sign up center? It opens at noon, does a line form by 10AM?
Thanks for the help,
Chase
Posted by: Chase Williamson | February 27, 2009 11:48 AM
Sorry, forgot to mention I'm in Broward, Southwest Regional Library is the sign up.
How early do I need to get to the sign up center? It opens at noon, does a line form by 10AM?
Thanks for the help,
Chase
Posted by: Chase Williamson | February 27, 2009 11:50 AM