My granddaughter who lives nearby in Atascocita completed Kindergarten last year at Oak's Elementary. Her teachers told her parents that they felt she was very bright and might be a candidate to skip 1st grade. She's the youngest of 5 kids and very competitive so I think she has just excelled so far at school, she reads as well or better than her sister who will be in 3rd this year. The school told my daughter in law that someone would be contacting them to schedule a test in July. Well no one ever called so she started leaving messages for the counselor at the school for the last 2 weeks, I went by a couple of times and no one was even there. On Friday I left a message for the counselor as well as the Assistant Principle. So, today I get a call back from the Principle's secretary apologizing for the mix up. Apparently we were given the wrong information, we were supposed to go to a webpage at the HISD office and do an online registration for the test and the test was only given 4 times in July, every Thursday morning during the month! She said she was trying to find out if the school could administer the test at their campus for my granddaughter and another child who is in the same boat. She apologized profusely and said there it might be that it's just not possible (legally) to do the test now and at the school but she would try. She also said that in the past the test given is the 3rd grade STARR test and the child has to pass with a score of 80 or higher in math, reading, social studies and science. Well if I had known that I would have downloaded past versions of that test and been working with her all summer! And she said that the counselor's last day was June 5th and she isn't due back until later this week so that's why no one ever returned our calls. Silly and frustrating. I think if I was raising a family all over again I would seriously consider home schooling them, the public schools have so much bureaucracy!
@Chrisinkingwood: I agree with part of your last statement, concerning the bureaucracy. No way I would ever consider home schooling my kids. Any large district has the same bureaucracy though. I went to Houston ISD for all 13 years prior to college and the same type of bureaucracy existed then, as well as the fact that you are literally one of a million students they have (not a million but you get the idea). Their goal is not to cater to you. The approach we take is, if there is something you are interested in, keep asking questions and essentially be a gnat until you figure it out. It is frustrating, but in some ways that prepares kids for real life.Â
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