Kindergarten Readiness Indicators

I have a 4 year old who know all of the above and she want to go to kindergarten in the fall because a relative that she is in pre-school with is going in the fall.  Are there private schools that will take my 4 year old child in as a kindergartener in the fall

My 4 year 9 month-old child can do all of the above AND do simple adding and subtracting using her fingers. She writes stories and can read small words. However, she will not be admitted to kindergarten in the fall.
 
I live in Prince George's County in Maryland. Yesterday, 6.18.08, I took my daughter to be "assessed" for early-admittance to kindergarten. She will be five 18 days after the Sept. 1 cut-off to begin kindergarten.
 
After a 30 minute "assessment" with a woman I know nothing about (we aren't told who these assessors are, what their credentials are, etc.) my daughter, who happily skipped off with her, came back to tell me that the lady asked her to spell the word "horse".
 
I didn't know going in what my daughter would be assessed on because they don't tell you. It's hush hush so parents don't prep their children before-hand. My thing is, a child can't fake their ability to read, identify patterns and identify numbers if you are switching up the test items you are using. If a child can do those things, chances are strongly indicating that the child has the ability to implement that skill.
 
I digress though.
 
So, my child, who has been in a private pre-school for the past year that costs her dad and I money we don't have, has been at or above-average developmentally according to her teachers she's worked with for the past school year.
 
Thirty minutes with this mysterious woman, I'm told my child is not qualified to enter kindergarten given her assessment score. She scored 91% on spelling, yet 63% in reading (she can spell but can't read???). Her math percentage was only 50%.
 
"What was she assessed on, what did you ask her to do?" I asked.
 
"Ma'm, we can't tell you that?" was the reply.
 
WTF?
 
I was later told to appeal by the mysterious woman's supervisor, Sandra Jiles. What am I appealing, I ask. I don't know what you assessed on her on.
 
This went on back and forth until Ms. Jiles, obviously annoyed with my questions said "Everyone else is doing this [age-based admittance/assessment] so it's nothing new.
 
Hence, my child, in a matter of a half-hour, has been deemed ill-suited for kindergarten, and me and her dad are to just trot off to find alternatives until next year when she is able to enter and be almost a full-year older than her peers...and that is a more suitable approach?
 
Who in the hell is developing the policies in our school systems?

Khadijah,
 
Let me share my experience with my own daughter with you...
 
We did the pre-assessment test with our daughter due to her abilities to enter her early into Kindergarten.  Our state's cut off date was May 1 and her birthday was August 3.  We were considering at the time moving back to a state where the cut off date was Sept 1.
 
After her assessment, we were told she passed but barely.  The evaluator of the program recommended that she wait one year, but we proceeded to put her into Kindergarten at a local private school.
 
She was in a class of 12 students.  Six of the twelve students were reading at a third grade reading level.  My daughter was not that high of a reader.  She knew the difference between her simple books and their chapter books.  She told herself that she was stupid and dumb.  She past Kindergarten with no problems but her self esteem had been dealt a big blow.
 
We moved across town (we never did move out of state) and she entered public school for first grade.  During the third quarter of first grade, the teacher received her standardized test scores.  They were very high and yet the teacher saw a child who was struggling more than she should be.  Then she noticed her date of birth.  We had a conference and talked things over.  We decided that she would repeat first grade before she was too far behind to catch up.
 
She would of past first grade, but not at the level she was capable at according to her test scores.  This would of eventually caught up to her and caused her to fail.
 
She is now going to be a Junior in High School.  At times I still catch her saying that she is not "intelligent".  She still tests very high on her ISTEP and past with no problem her Sophomore exam which is required for graduation, but this means nothing to her self esteem.
 
I wish I could go back and NOT put her in kindergarten a year early.  I think she would of been better prepared and been one of the kids reading at a much higher level.
 
As far as her being almost a full year older, that has not been a problem for us at all.  It has never been a factor for her.  Your daughter will not be the only one who is a little older than the other students.  I know you are upset, but there are good reasons for the testing.
 
By the way, when she was in fourth grade, she qualified to be in the gifted program at her school.  We decided that would be too much pressure for her and she has always been in the main stream classes.  She was part of that decision.

April,
 
Your response was wonderful, so honest and enlightening!  
 
Those that have put too much pride in their child's academic success seem to be dealt the biggest blow when their child isn't given a recommendation.
 
Yet in many cases, lack of readiness has less to do with academics, and more to do with social/emotional readiness.
 
A child can be intelligent, but if the child is socially/emotionaly immature-his self esteem may suffer if he feels inadequate to his classmates.   He will always compare himself and beat himself up over the smallest issues.  This could then spill over into their academics/learning.
 
Conversely, a child that may not be a whiz kid but has social/emotional maturity may be given the green light to start.  This child is confident and doesn't worry and compare himself to his peers in a negative way.  
 
Our cut-off is early December.  The assessors caution ALL parents to wait if their child's test score is borderline and their birthday is after the end of June.  They've seen too many struggles.  So a large majority of children are starting kindergarten when they are 5 1/2 -6 years old!  
 
Khadijah, don't be angry-your child sounds like a bright little girl.  It's understandable the school can't give you details-sadly many parents would then begin frontloading their kids to pass a readiness test, which defeats the whole purpose!
 
Try asking them "Was her recommendation based on academics, social/emotional or both?"...that way you can at least know in which area they made their decision on.  If it's social/emotional, only the gift of time can help get her ready!  If it's academic, she has a whole year to prepare.
 
A few of my friends were upset at first when they didn't get a recommendation.  But most realized that giving their child an extra year could only be beneficial.  Instead of struggling, their child would very likely be ahead or at least right where they need to be!  You can't put a price on self esteem and confidence!
 
Very few, even the brightest of the brightest kids start kindergarten here if their birthdates are September or later.  The assessments usually show they're not ready.  Also, parents here can legally put their kids into kindergarten regardless of what the  assessment shows -but most parents are waiting because that is the trend now, and has proven successful.
 

My daughter is 2 and a half, so kindergarten is a ways off.  But the other day I got to thinking about this issue. My daughter started preschool at 20 months (it's not rigidly academic but there are some academics taught, just 2 days a week) mainly because she was craving the social interaction.  She loves it there and we plan on enrolling her every year until she begins kindergarten.  But I got to thinking about her academic abilities and mainly how she is a social butterfly, and I think she will probably be ready for kindergarten when she is 4 but won't be allowed to go (her birthday is in December), and this kind of bugs me.  
Academically speaking, by this time she will have already completed 4 years of preschool. She already could recognize the letters of the alphabet and what sounds they made when she was a young 1 year old.  I wouldn't say that she is so highly intelligent that she is "smarter" than most of her peers (although other people have told me so... how do you react to that?) And I don't think she'll be skipping grades... if I have to quantify it I guess I would say that she is on the high end of "average". Like any kid, she excels in some areas more than others.  The thing is that socially, she interacts better with kids that are slightly older than her than she does with her peers.  She does great in a structured environment, knows how to behave and follow directions already, etc.  Now, she of course is nowhere near being ready for kindergarten now, but it seems like by 4 she will probably be more than ready.  If she's not, of course I won't even want to put her in.
Sorry if I'm rambling without much of a point... I'm just trying to work through my own thoughts.  I guess the thing is that for kids who aren't ready yet socially, it may be nice to have that cut off date moved up to take the pressure off the parents.  And I understand that some parents are too pushy with their kids.  The thing is, it shouldn't be about the parents, it should be about the kids.  It's like we are always being told to do what is right for our own individual child, but then somewhere around the 4 and 5  year old mark it is decided for us? That doesn't make sense. I am not trying to drop my child off for babysitting, I'm not trying to push her beyond what she is ready for, and I certainly don't want to hold her back from something she is ready to do.  There needs to be a better way of assessment.

It's funny how Khadijah's daughter didn't pass b/c of her "academic' unreadiness, yet how was she emotionally? I'm going to ramble on about my questions if everyone is so concern about social/emotional maturity.
 My son is also 4 yrs and 11 months.  He didn't make the district's requirement to enter kindergarten because he didn't associate groups during his assessments, i.e. campfire:marshmallow.  We don't camp.  We don't eat marshmallow.  Unlike Khadija, our district did let usreview the questions.  For the academics, he scored 106 our of 120 questions.  To pass, you need 110.   I felt some of the questions were bias to American Pop Culture.  It is something that we don't teach our son because we feel that American Pop Culture would be something he would eventually learn in school.  Instead, we teach him about his own native culture because that's not something he would learn in school.
I came to accept that he wasn't entering Kindergarten this Sept.  However, during our conversation with the District administrator, she kept rambling on, and on about social/emotional growth of a child, self-esteem in the later years. Yet, when the district also did a psyco-analysis with him...and deemed him to have the emotion/social ability of a 6 yrs old. Yet, they rejected him for 'early kindergarten entrance' b/c he was 4 points shy of American Pop Culture quiz.  They're reasoning, is they have very strict admissions process where parents' can NOT appeal, or make any exceptions.  The children have to pass all 7 areas of the assessments(it was a 65 minutes long).
So I've talked to school counselors, psychologists, teachers...they all say the same thing.  WAIT.  Wait on what??? for him to learn about Madona? Hanna Montanna???  How to be captain of a football team?
So I contemplated even more...and I look back at my days in school because I am a September baby.  My parents listened to the teachers and held me back.  I always felt left out b/c I was the oldest....I was also teased a lot because I was the oldest.  I always scored the top of my class in academics...but socially...I didn't fit in.  My school counselor sent me to finish my HS years at a community college and got my GED.   It wasn't until college that I felt I belong and formed life long friendships.
So on the social/emotional growth.  I think the school district should look at the child individually and not base it on scores.
As for my son, I took him to all the area private schools and had them assessed.  He passed all 12 school's assessments. (my poor kid)
A few schools recommended that we formerly test his IQ because he's exceptional. (we'll see).  So for now, I've enrolled him into one of the schools to try out Kindergarten.  If he likes it and does well academically, we'll advance him into 1st grade next year.  If not, then he'll re-do Kindergarten in a multi-age group school where there are a variety of age groups so he doesn't feel like he's the oldest.
It's kinda funny....I had one mother said, yeah, her son is the oldest and biggest so he's the smartest of all of his classmates.  To me, it was like her saying...I was the smartest out of a bunch of stupids.  Sometimes it better to be mediocre in a field of very smart, creative people.  (I hope that statement didn't offend anyone.)  Sorry if it did.
Winnie N.
 

Ladies,
I would like to say that I was very interested in hearing what you all had to say.  I am a kindergarten teacher for a catholic school in WI and we do not assess the children before entering.  The only requirement is that they be 5 years old by Sept. 1.  I understand many of your arguments, but let me say one thing.  Please do not push your child.  Let them accelerate at their own speed.  I, myself and many other teachers teach the children at their pace, but they do have to be placed in the appropriate grade level.  I used to teach 2 days of prek and 3 days of kdg. so I could see the progress that was made.  Many times I had borderline 4/5 year olds and all of them repeated prek.  The parents were very happy that they did.  We are not holding your children back because they are not "smart" enough or can't read.  We want them to be well-rounded children in all areas and we want them to succeed.  When a child succeeds, we have accomplished our goals. So please, just enjoy having your child home 1 more year and trust us when we say wait.  

Thank you to all who have responded..my daughter will be five in 13 days and today was her third day of pm kindergarten. We had no assessment as the age cutoff in Mercer Co, NJ is 5 by Sept. 30th...we are all set right? WRONG. I go to pick up my very happy but tired kinderdartener today only to have a very enlightening discussion on her not readiness for kindergarten. What a blow! My daughter is reading at a 3rd grade level, has been in preschool for the past two years, but apparently is not able to focus in group settings for very long, and her fine motor skills are not ready for kindergarten tasks. I am a little devastated as she LOVES going to school. However, I am going to heed the council of her wonderful teacher and hold her back. I have read and read and read and researched about the self esteem issue and I do not want her first experience with formal education to be discouraging or humiliating. Also, I don't want her to spend an entire school year with a group of kids and watch them advance to the next grade while she has to repeat. Talk about a blow to your self esteem. Not a good way to establish a solid academic foundation.
My family and have just relocated to NJ from Michigan 6 weeks ago so we have all been under lots of stress and changes. The kids are much more resilient at this age and it is very helpful to know that lots of other parents have faced this same dilemma.
Thanks for listening.