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.
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