My kiddo also had trouble way back when with the DRA assessments and teacher choosing her level of reading. It seemed way out of whack to me. I had no idea about gifted stuff way back then. I use to sneak books on her level into her back pack and told her to read those. I started off in first grade with the Tree House series. They were below her level but the books were small enough to not attract attention and there was some interesting tid bits that she liked to learn. By the end of the year I had given up all trying to hide books by thickness or hard back or whatever...She had all kinds of books that she was taking. I never heard from the teacher and I would just test her comprehension with a few questions here and there. My child is very uncomfortable reading out loud and I think that can really affect how some teachers see the reading ability. My child loves to read and I would do anything I could to protect that love of reading. Sneaking books in for her saved her sanity for awhile. The sneaking started after I met with the teacher and it was apparent that she was adamant that the test scores were accurate and that she had her properly placed. I have a younger child who I will help her learn to read out loud a bit better. Also I think if I was faced with the same dilemma again I would check into Sylvan learning and see what assessments they had. I had my older daughter tested for math with them for very cheap relative to private testing and the information facilitated her into the highly gifted program... They had nationally ranked tests and she got the 99 % she needed. They do not break down the 99 into anything more than 99. Just an idea.
