My daughter is in first grade and we're struggling to find some context for test scores and understanding whether we should be asking for a differentiated curriculum for her.
She's a self-taught reader who, as far as we can tell, was born with the ability to read. She entered preschool reading on what we were told was a DRA 20 level. In K, they told us she maxed out at DRA 50 and could probably go much higher if she could write on that level. Every school year we battle with incredulous teachers and we dread it.
We moved over the summer and things have gotten really strange. Her new teachers told us she hasn't even mastered a beginning second grade reading level and has huge gaps in her comprehension. We immediately began to worry. If she regressed that far, what could have happened? We were pretty concerned. Then they administered the 1st grade MAP test. They told us she scored 95th percentile but didn't even score the highest score in the class for reading. They said she'd nearly maxed out the test in reading and math so they administered the 2-5 MAP.
Her scores were like this:
Reading: 207
Math: 203
My husband is a former education reporter and used to report on these scores. We understand what they mean from a statistical standpoint. What we don't really understand is what sort of differentiation we should be expecting for her. We live in Michigan where there is little if any gifted education. Now that her teachers have seen these scores, they insist her big gaps in comprehension are at the 4th grade level instead of 1st and want to enrich her reading comprehension and that's pretty much it.
They seem to think scores like these are pretty mundane. We've never tried to navigate public schools before and we have no idea what to believe or expect.
We're now on year three of pretty much no meaningful instruction for her and we're frustrated. What is reasonable to expect from the school? Anyone have any ideas based on her instructional level? We're stumped.
