Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy Teacher conf tomorrow- 3rd grade advice/advocacy

Tomorrow I meet with my DD8's third grade teacher. Whenever I help out in class her teacher assures me that she is doing fantastic, and is one of the very best students especially in ELA. However, her report card shows that she has moved from pretty much all 4's (exemplary, on a scale of 1-4) in second grade to only 3's (proficient) in third grade. It does not make any sense to me. Test reports that were sent home appear to indicate a more than just proficient student:
- the "beginning of third grade ELA/ Reading" score is 97th percentile, with a Lexile score of 1005L.
- Cogat scores: Verbal 95 percentile, Math 88 percentile, Nonverbal 94 percentile
- Iowa test scores are pending
- She scored just under the cut-off for Single Subject Acceleration for ELA at the beginning of this schoolyear.

DD attends a Magnet school with Gifted in the name. However, there is one part-time AG teacher only for all grades, and she is spread very thin. Services are pretty much limited to 4th and 5th grade. DD has not had any pull-out AG services this year (she had them last year for math and ELA).

What should I ask for as far as differentiation?

This is a girl who reads nonstop, and will do anything to get more reading time. We do some after-schooling with IXL and workbooks. I see this school as offering minimal services for AG students, and am thinking about doing more after/ home schooling. I get so tired of advocating for my children, and getting the impression that the school sees me as one of "those" parents and trying to do just the bare minimum for gifted kids. Kids who are below grade level get services left and right, but AG kids get pretty much nothing. I will stop here, getting too frustrated...

from my limited Kindergarten experience, it's quite possible she's getting 3s now so she can receive 4s at the end of the year to show "improvement" which is what schools are after. DS5 had all 3s and 2s on his K report card couple weeks ago even though he's far beyond in science and especially in math (2-3 years ahead) yet he did not receive a single 4 on his report card while he WAS getting 4s on the individual assessments that came home for us to look at.

We took him out and are now homeschooling so don't have to worry about report cards anymore.

Yes, my experience is that no one gets a 4 in the first trimester in elementary school unless they're doing college-level work, and maybe not then.

If they give them 4's now what will they give them at the end of the year? And how can they possibly know everything required to get a 4 when it hasn't been covered yet?

And more to the point how can the teacher know she has reached that level when she is being very careful not to find out. Jaundiced? Me?

Case in point: DS 7 is partially homeschooled. He is doing chemistry at home using a high school text. He is sometimes present at school during science time. If he is there on a test day, he will take their test. Always gets 100%+ (as he gets extra credit for doodling orbitals for various elements for example). The teacher rated DS "at grade level" (2nd grade) and he got the equivalent of a B- on his report card.

Report cards mean nothing at the elementary level for HG kids (in general ed environments). In fact we told the school that we didn't need one for DS but they felt the need to create one. If it makes them happy I am not going to get in the way!

Maybe I will try not to worry so much about the numbers... However, this is the first time EVER since starting Kindergarten that we have not seen at least half of the subjects have 4's. Seriously, this is fuelling my thoughts of homeschooling. We started doing more home/ after schooling this year, because of school frustrations, especially the lack of differentiation or challenging work. Does ANYBODY get AIG pull-out services or other arrangements in third grade? In NC? I don't think my DD is PG or HG, most likely "just normal gifted" in the 130-140 range, just like her sibling who was tested (with an eye on whole grade acceleration). I think this one is just bobbing along and trying to please her teacher, while not wanting to look too different from classmates. It is hard to show exemplary work (to get a 4) when there is no above-grade level work or other way to really show you are exemplary. Or is there?

The scale that your DD is being graded on seems like it should be mastery grading, but in reality, teachers teach as they were taught, and they grade as they were graded. Different teachers include a variety of things that aren't scores indicating level of mastery, like class participation, homework completion, and even behaviors.

Case in point, my third grade DD is getting letter grades for the first time this year. First report card comes home and her lowest grade is in reading. This kid reads on at least a middle school level. Well, her teacher docks points for lateness, and my daughter turned in several reading logs late. As a teacher myself, I'm personally not keen on this, and wouldn't do it in my own classroom.

However, I think it's important that my daughter understands that school, like many other systems in life, is a game, and that if you want to be successful within the context of the game, you need to play by those rules. We're very open with her about our expectations of her, but grades at this age aren't super-meaningful, and we try to convey our feelings about that.

Good luck with your meeting today!

If it's any consolation we have the same problem. I don't even show my kid his report card. He always gets Ps in science and social studies and such but his tests never have anything wrong - he gets %100. He did get an "Advanced" in science last year but I think it was because it was the end of the year and he took it upon himself to write a research papaer on carnivorous plants (he was so enamored and fascinated with them) and shared it with the class. My kid is very far above the other students in his class in math but only got a PH. Same in reading, he's reading grade levels above and only got a PH this report card. I don't fret about ti as long as the 'grades' are not keeping him out of anything.

As to NC, depends on where you are located as to whether and what kind of services you can receive. In Charlotte with TD certification we had pullouts starting in K and full time gifted programming in third grade at a magnet. The talent development coordinator does some pullouts but also provides material and coaching to the teachers.

I was numbed to the irrelevance of grades as a kid, and have a hard time caring what arbitrary neatnes + accuracy loaded scoring has to tell me. But you may want to see her actual tests or other scoring and have a conference with the teacher if it is a big concern. When I look at DS8's tests I can see where he misread a question or accidentally wrote a word wrong and can compare that to whether I know he understands the concept.

From what I have been told, unless my son's teachers are actually instructing, assigning and assessing work at above level (or below level) the have to designate it as on level. So last year my son was in 2nd grade working out of a 3rd grade math book (instruction, work and assessments). He did get above level in math. Reading --he was reading well above level but the majority of his language arts instruction, which includes both reading and writing, and assessment was on level even though he went beyond that daily in class with extra reading.

Maybe that is the case with other schools...if the don't differentiate above level for at least 80% of the instruction,work, and assessment and just modify it on a bit or miss basis then they can't mark it that.