I have been reading post after post on this forum about this crazy reading system (It is most likely Fountas and Pinnel/ "Guided Reading") and all the push-back that parents get when they ask about their child's reading level or indicate that they think their child is placed too low. From what I understand there is an assessment for each level. So an assessment for C, an assessment for F, etc. all the way to Z. If they pass the level "L", for instance, then theoretically they should be given "M" but there appears to be caps for each grade level and some teachers/schools follow the caps and others don't. I am not clear whether the assessments for certain levels are 100 percent one-on-one with the teacher and student or whether some levels also involve writing, but DD's 5th grade teacher told me that she didn't do that well on the "writing" portion of the "W" reading assessment, but she did well verbally. So, she is stuck at a level W because her writing stinks (she actually has writing services in her IEP). Two years ago at this time she was at a Level V, in third grade at a different school. I inquired about going up only one level in two years and immediately got a sort of attitude and brush off, "Oh, that school must not be asking as much as we are" blah blah. I didn't argue but felt like asking what kind of assessment system this is, then, if two different schools can give the same assessment and come up with wildly different results. Meanwhile my third grader is also at a level "W" but his MAP reading score is lower than DD's. So what gives?
DS was at level "O" in kindergarten, then the next year he regressed to an "L", then in second grade he was at around an "N". We switched schools mid-year (to the supposedly more vigourous, strict school when it comes to these assessments) and suddenly he was at a "T", and now a few months later he is at a "W". It's all a big mystery to me how they arrive at these levels. I think the schools must know it's a big mess and they get very defensive when parents ask about it.
Are they giving you an attitude about anything else, or just the reading level?
