Posts Tagged ‘class’

The Preschool Screening

My public school drives my absolutely bananas.  I wanted to get Madison’s hearing screened just to make sure that there were no problems.  We thought maybe some of Madison’s attention issues were due to her not hearing.  However, my school being the pain in butt that they are wouldn’t do it unless we scheduled her to be prescreened for preschool through the school (which is a joke but I’ll tell you about that later).  Obviously, there is some sort of federal funding they get for this, because I wanted a five minute screening and got stuck with an hour long screening.  I sucked it up and took her.

I swear that they expect these kids to have a flash memory drive in their heads. I could hear some of the things they were testing her on, and from what I could tell, she was doing well.  When they called me up after the testing was over, I was right.  Except for cutting and catching, she scored everything else in the 6 year old range.  Madison is only 4.  I am seriously wondering if some of the attention issues we are having with her at preschool are due to her being bored. That was the good news.

The bad new was that we failed her hearing screening.  I asked what the school would do for that.  The answer:  nothing.  We would have to pay for additional testing elsewhere.  The other thing that ticked me off to no end was that she couldn’t even get into the school preschool if I wanted to send her.  The only kids who get in are those who are considered “at risk” (which Madison is obviously not) and if we made less than $80,000 a year.  Umm, yeah.  We make more than that.  In Chicago, I am not sure if you can even own a decent house making less than $80,000 a year.  Basically, the only kids who get in are those who don’t speak English (because there were several kids like that there) and low income people.  I guess my question is what about the middle class?  Why do we always get screwed?

Where is the accountability?

You know, I seriously hate being negative on here.  I really do.  However, some thing just tick me off to no end, so you all have to hear about them.  :)

If you are a regular reader here, you know about my struggle with the public school and that we are considering sending her to private school.  Click here to read all about it.

Now, my taxes pay their salaries and getting someone to talk to me is like pulling teeth.  Then they don’t really answer what I ask either.  However, my favorite has to be the Chicago Tribune article I read this week that the schools districts are telling parents to ignore the state test scores since they were graded differently this year.  However, at the state level, they are saying the grading is comparable to years past.  So who is right?  Who needs to recheck their job descriptions and find out that they have no right to tell the parents anything?

Seriously, where is the accountability?  I hear over and over that public schools are better since they are accountable.  Really?  They won’t talk to parents, they lie about test scores, etc. Where is the accountability?

Here is what I have learned from the private school.  They are very transparent.  They don’t baby any parents.  The principal even said at the open house that if 90% of the parents can do it right, they all should be able to and that they don’t put up with that crap.  Every time I have called and talked to them, they have answered every single one of my questions.  They told me the class size this year for every single grade (K-8).  The people answering the phone were extremely knowledgeable.  There has only been one question they didn’t know the answer to and she gave me the number of the person who would (and that person did!).  I can come in anytime and tour the school, and their test scores are an open book that can also be looked at any time I want.  Granted, I have to pay to get this type of service but don’t I pay the public schools too?

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