Ugh. It just seems like reading would be the easiest subject to allow kids to do more at their own level. Obviously, at home, DS reads what he wants to. But at school, my understanding is that the choices are very limited. Also, while I can understand that a 2nd grade teacher wouldn't want kids reading "Dear Dumb Diary," I think that it would be easy to let kids read more advanced nonfiction books without worrying that they are 'suitable for children.'
I think that my biggest frustration with the testing policy is that I would think that teachers would want to know what the kids are capable of at the beginning of the year. It might help them be more understanding if a problem came up. And I say this because the teacher has made comments at both conferences, such as, "DS is often distracted... or doesn't pay attention... or is gazing out the window." And I'm sitting there thinking, "Give him an interesting book and he'll be quietly occupied for hours."
