Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy Assessment to continue?

I understand an assessment to accelerate, but an assessment to continue? I don't know whether I am being paranoid, but my first thought was WTF. DS was assesed by the District GT office before he was accelerated to Pre-Algrebra this year(4th grade). He has received As every quarter and his teacher has consistently indicated that he is beyond the 5th graders who were selected to study Pre-Algebra. Mostly due to funding concerns, I sent an email to the GT office to inquire about the method of instruction for DS for next year since he will still be in elementary school while the other students in the program will be in middle school. My concern was a funding issue since they have to pay a teacher for DS one day a week. However, I was told that he will be assessed by the person in charge of math curriculum for our district and will proceed to Algebra in the same format as this year if he passes. They already have Explore scores (ceiling) and MAP scores (above 95% for 10th graders) as well as the straight As. What the hell is there to assess? If he "fails," then is he suppose to repeat Pre-Algebra even though he received straight As? After the previous acceleration, they didn't need to assess him to conitnue with his class so I really did not see this coming. It's not that I think he would fail, although I have no idea how they plan to assess him. I am trying to stay cool and maintain my SOP, but this is kind of irritating and I don't know whether I should mention it to DS that he will be assess next week. Anybody have any thoughts?

Thoughts: I'd be suspicious, too. Why the special treatment? Are his classmates also being "assessed" for readiness?

Honestly, I'd fire back with some pointed questions here. If it's the same class, he shouldn't be treated differently from classmates.

What on earth does this say about grade inflation?? <-- totally use that one, btw.

I absolutely think that you need to ask these questions of the district office right away, before the assessments begin and before you say something to your DS.

Your DS has proven that he is more ready for advancement than most of the other kids in the class, by three separate measures. He should not be assessed again in a fourth manner, unless all the other students are also being assessed at the same time.

You are absolutely right to be alarmed about this and look into it further.

And I would use the grade inflation line of HowlerKarma's if you can fit it in!

Our school requires an exit exam aka placement test every year for Math classes starting 3rd grade and continuing through HS. It is possible for a kid to take Algebra or another HS level class, get good grades, and fail the exit exam. They do get a second chance at the test in early August if they fail in the spring. They recommend retaking a class or non honors track to students that fail the 2nd test. It doesn't happen often, but it does occasionally. It keeps the teachers in check from grade inflation.

I would inquire if all students are being assessed or just yours. In our district all of them are being assessed every year.

I would ask, but not get upset about this yet. My memory is weak on this, but there is some type of algebra-readiness exam that is used in many school districts in the US, including the one I'm in and it's routinely given here to honors students who are accelerated in math prior to placing me in Algebra, regardless of grades etc in Pre-Algebra. There is also a small list that must be checked off here that includes grades, test score, and something else I can't remember.. The key is, chances are your ds will do a-ok on the exam! If he doesn't, he still has his grades, his successful completion of all Pre-algebra coursework, his teacher recommendation etc. If the school does come back and say repeat Pre-algebra, you have plenty of data to successfully advocate with to prevent that from happening.

Best Wishes,

polarbear

As usual, thank you ladies for the varied perspectives. I decided to stick with my usual approach. At the last minute, I did send an email to inquire as to the nature of the assessment (oral or written and year-end or readiness, etc.). However, I received a vague answer back mostly because the school administrator did not know. I simply told DS that he will have either an oral and/or written assessment to see how he is doing in math and to just do his best and not worry about it. He took it last week and it wasn't a big deal. There were only a few difficult/confusing questions out of more than 60. It was likely an algebra readiness type assessment. I haven't heard back but both his teacher and the school administrator previously indicated that DS should do great and that it should be a formality for him. We will see. What bothered me was that it came out of the blue and nobody said anything about a possible assessment. I still don't know if the 5th graders in the program had to take the assessment as well. This whole program is so "secretive" that nobody except a couple of people seem to know much of anything about it and the fact that DS is a 4th grader adds that extra twist.

It seems a bit unfair to punish the kids for the teacher's dishonesty. If you pass the course it seems reasonable you should be able to go to the next level. If you pass the course but not the test then either the teacher has been inflating the grade or the has been teaching and assessing the wrong stuff - not the students fault.

The entire point of it is to keep them honest and it seems to work well. As I mentioned it isn't happening often. The students get a second chance at the exam before the next year begins. For the most part our teachers are grading hard not inflated. My oldest dc had it happen years ago that he tanked the exit exam. He retook it and passed. Why he tanked I don't know, but he knew the material and had a solid grade. Just a bad day for him, I guess. I actually like the system because I do think it keeps the teachers from passing off kids that don't know the material. They won't have a job if a bunch of A/B students can't pass the exit exam. The kids that most often fail it are the kids hovering on the passing line the begin with in class. They don't retain younger kids, but they use it as a guide for grouping the following year. They older kids have to meet a minium level to move on.

I appreciate it the system. I really don't want my dc moving on if they have not master material. My ds 13 has done 3 years in the last year. Each one of the those exit exams was an added measure for me that he did indeed master the material before moving on.

They are a district test. It's not a published test but one created by the district. Our district looks at the state testing as a joke. They have written these to get a real idea of what the kids actually know. No multiple choice junk and fairly comprehensive. They are not graded for a child's class grade. The kids don't study for them. The only time a kid might review for them is when the failed it on the first attempt. They just take them towards the last few weeks of school. I like them a lot.