Before I selected my children's school the summer before Kindergarten I not only did walk-throughs of the 2 schools in the running school but I made an appointment and met with the director of their Mathematics curriculum to see what was up. The private school didn't have one so it sort of dropped out of the running. I made the public school director sit with me, pull out all her books and explain the arrangement up clear through High School. In the end I really liked the curriculum, even though I didn't like her AT ALL.... she was nasty and condescending. I don't think she believed I was able to follow her, but I was
I told her the way I see it, I'm trusting them with my greatest treasures. If a school blows it with Math there is no un-doing the damage because it comes in layers just like a good foundation forms.
My kids are now in the 5th and 6th grades and I am glad I did what I did, they are both doing exceptionally well especially in Mathematics. I think kids get treated differently when the teacher knows a caring team-member parent is looking over their kids' shoulder. I am totally hands off unless I see a problem, then I'm all over it. On a day to basis I am the first to volunteer to come in and help and always send in supplies ect. I compliment the teachers whenever possible, ask for their advice and direction but make it perfectly clear my job is to make sure they do their job and when they do it well the Principal gets a nice letter to put in their employee file. It's about 90% kissing up and 10% don't mess with my kid or else it won't be pretty. So far so good
When I chose our pre-school I was all about child safety. I happened to go with a religious school because it was highly recommended but that meant there were Church workers on the grounds which concerned me. I wanted to know what were their protocols. Who had access to the kids? Were all office workers janitors ect screened? The school I picked had 2 way mirrors as the outside wall so I could sit there and look in all day if I wanted, I didn't do it but I liked the open-ness. They also had a fenced in playground which meant no-one could ever wander off. As for academics at this age, I felt it was mainly my job to get them learning ready so we did things like visit the zoo & museums and went on many play-dates... many many many play-dates. Being a good friend is as important as letters when a kid is 4. I think the big points at this age were letter recognition both visual and audio, good social skills and the ability to follow directions. If I were you I'd swing by one day to see for myself how the kids behave and find the parents waiting outside just prior to dismissal and ask them what they think of the program. A bunch of happy smiling well behaved kids or a hostile looking teacher screaming at the little ones will tell you more than any words you'll ever hear from an administrators mouth.
I think that it is important to thoroughly investigate the people who get access to my kids, heaven knows the schools fail miserably on this front way too often for my liking. Don't believe me, just look at the paper.
Yes, of course, I have expectations -all parents should! I expect that she will learn and have fun while doing so. 
