Argh, I've been trying to post in my own threads all week but I keep just getting a blank screen so I have to start a new one.
The first trimester is done, the school has had DD5's
WJ-III scores for 5 weeks, and they finally got around to doing the 2 simple assessments they told us 8 weeks ago that they could give her. One just ended up being the 1st grade level of AIMSweb and I have no idea why they wasted their time with that one. The other was the STAR reading test for AR and her grade equivalent on that is 3.5.
So tell me why, dear professional educators, now that you have all this lovely data... WHY is my DD still being subjected to early K-level work? I was helping with centers this week and during that time the teacher was calling the students up to read with her individually. They just have these little 4-page pamphlets to practice sight words (I like cars. I like books.) I thought, surely now that their own testing shows her reading at a mid-3rd-grade level, she won't make DD read these to her... but that's what she did. Or rather, as she brought each little booklet out DD recited each one at about the speed of the
Micro Machines Man with her eyes shut. (thepumpkinisbigthepumpkinisfatthepumpkinisorange) I could hear the teacher saying more than once something to the effect of "You just have all these memorized- you need to read the words, not just say what you remember." Then she gave DD the whole stack of booklets to bring home and said, "You need to practice reading these with your parents instead of just memorizing them." Bwa? There's only one word different on each page- how could she NOT have them memorized? And I'll note here- DD's class is small to begin with but on this particular day there were only 9 kids in the room so it's not like she was too rushed to grab an actual book off the shelf for her to read aloud.
They have a separate math time (and DD goes to a different teacher for that) but sometimes they do math work at one of the centers. The one time I saw a math center, it was tracing on these giant wipe-off numbers. Yeah, this is a kid with a flippin' 4-sigma applied problems score- she's not really benefiting from number-tracing. DD seemed to agree, and decided it was more fun to throw the letters at her friends while laughing maniacally. She stopped after being scolded (twice) and still ended up with a green card for the day so that makes me wonder if this isn't uncommon behavior for her. (And she really doesn't need the tracing practice- her handwriting is good enough that she successfully forged my signature more than once last week but that's another issue.)
So since nothing has changed, I guess the ball is still in my court now?? I figured they would use their assessments to inform the instruction but I guess I need to spell it out for them?? ("Your assessment shows DD is reading at a mid-3rd level so please excuse her from practicing the word "go" and give her some 3rd grade books."??)
The teacher so far has said nothing whatsoever about any of these assessments other than telling me the scores she had. When I emailed the academic director the WJ-III scores, she said, "[The teacher] can't teach the third grade curriculum in the short time she has with her kiddos every day, and I am not comfortable having [DD] go to a classroom with students who are two to three years older than she is."
Um, okaaaay... I didn't suggest either of those things (or anything really, other than assessing her above K level) but thanks for telling me all the ways you CAN'T help her and not offering any solutions. The only other point the AD had to make was that we need to help DD be a kindergartner and develop her socially and emotionally as well as academically.
I don't even really care if DD learns anything in school this year, but I'm VERY interested to see if the school cares. In 1st grade next year there's a 2-hour literacy block and a full hour of math. I just can't see DD managing that if the work is so far below her level. This just makes me tired thinking about it- I need a nap now.
