Standards and Grade Levels

Kindergarten isn't mandatory in California, so last year, which would have been Ozzy's kindergarten year, we didn't file an affidavit with the state or register with a charter school. I researched curricula and settled on a plan, then we implemented it. I didn't worry much about how he compared to public school kids, though I did try to pay extra attention whenever friends with kids in school mentioned what their kids were required to do, in an effort to make sure we didn't miss anything important. This year, having registered both goblins--Ozzy for first, Sofie for kindergarten*--with a charter school just to take advantage of the funds available for curricula and activities, I'm required to fill out a form throughout the year, indicating when they reach certain milestones in various subjects. I sat down with it at the beginning of the school year in August, and checked every.single.box. Everything Ozzy was supposed to be able to do by the end of first grade, he'd been doing for months. In fact, Sofie, at 4.5, was halfway through the list herself, and every box on her kindergarten form was checked.

By my standards, Ozzy wasn't quite finished with first grade because he had about 6 weeks left of our first grade math curriculum, and about as much left of first grade spelling. Likewise Sofie wasn't quite finished with kindergarten because she had five weeks left of her penmanship book, which she needed to complete before she could begin first grade writing (writing=composition, as opposed to penmanship). That was almost three months ago, and they've both since "leveled up". They are still enrolled in their charter school as being in first grade and kindergarten, however, because we do plan to send them to school to do an International Baccalaureate program for their last two years of high school. So currently, Ozzy is doing second grade work and Sofie is doing first. They both (but particularly Ozzy, at this point) read above those grade levels, but again, defining reading levels is difficult. Tests usually rate decoding skills but can't distinguish between levels of comprehension and insight. For instance, Ozzy became fascinated by The Odyssey and read a good bit of the adult, unabridged version, which is considered a tenth grade level book, but he couldn't possibly have gotten out of it what a tenth-grader (hopefully) would. As a result, I don't find the tests and rubrics to be very useful. Based on the books he reads with full comprehension and appropriate insight, his reading is on about fifth grade level. 

This isn't intended to be a "The public schools are a disgrace! Save the children!" diatribe. While the public schools most assuredly could be doing some things much better, and could use more government assistance in some areas--far less in others--all of that has been and will continue to be the topic of many hand-wringing conversations that are certainly not in need of additional participants. Rather, I do occasionally forget to define my terms when discussing grade levels, and this post is intended to mitigate confusion.


*With an October birthday, Sofie would, in most states, not be eligible for kindergarten until next year. California is in the process of rolling back its cutoff to September 1st to align with the majority of states, but fortunately for Sofie, that process won't be complete for several years.