We just had a similar experience with DD's report card. Several "beginning to understand"s for things we know she's proficient in, at least. She's in the highest groups for language arts and yet gets only "proficient"s rather than "expert"s on some; I'm guessing they're leaving room for improvement for the final term, and just don't really know her yet, which is something we've recently been feeling, sadly. She doesn't react we'll to being put on the spot, so I'm sure it's harder for the teacher to see (we have also had long term maternity leave subs BOTH years so far). I know DD spaces out and has been coming up with her own methods to help herself focus, like singing songs in her head as she copies spelling words smirk there are just so many learning centers and she gets distracted smirk