Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Another look behind the curtain - first grade

I don't understand it either. Also, they give the kids computerized testing that goes above level 3 times each year and the SIP is supposed to predict how they will do on the state test. DS's math SIP was 98 percent meaning he will get approx. 98 percent of the state questions correct. I emailed that comment to the teacher as well as telling her that the district is teaching to the test. She never replied. I got DS's most recent computerized test results for math and they are above the 75th percentile for 10th graders taking the test in the spring. He's only in second grade. Yet the district completely ignores these results. Do they think it's just lucky guessing or what? If so why do they even bother giving the kids the computerized testing. It's really frustrating. I could take these scores to the admin and say "What the heck are you guys thinking? Look at these scores" and they wouldn't bat an eye.

blackcat - exactly! They do all of this repeated testing that supposedly gives a number that is independent of grade (our testing is much like yours), our gifted kids score WAY above grade...and then they continue to teach them lockstep, the grade-level material. Then why do the testing???

There seems to be an attitude of "if your kid is gifted, then they must also be magical...and teach themselves."

Dear god. If they can ignore those kind of results in their own testing they can ignore anything. I am banging my head against the wall on your behalf.

Eventually, we simply flat out told the teacher that our son wouldn't be participating in the homework nor any in class math work until they were teaching something that would be new grounds for him. It wasn't a threat, it wasn't being difficult, it was simply informing them so they'd know.

All too often we as adults see our time as valuable but we don't view a child's time as valuable. Combine that with increasing frustration levels and as a parent eventually you get to the point where you say, "That's it, that's enough, this just isn't going to happen anymore. I'm not putting my kid through this."

I figured what's the worst thing that can happen in elementary school? My child will get an "Unsatisfactory" in math? I can live with that.

This is what we did last year at this time when DS's teacher kept sending home the 1st grade 2+3 homework. The teacher told me that she wanted him to do it so that his handwriting improves. If she wanted his handwriting to improve there are more appropriate things she could have given him! I wrote her an email saying that DS would not be doing the homework anymore and eventually she stopped sending it. I started sending in work that I chose myself as his homework. I didn't tell DS to not do the classroom work since I thought that would send him the wrong message, but it was tempting. Eventually we just took him out.

Blackcat, I'm so frustrated on your behalf. What else do they need to see to prove he needs to be accelerated in math? It's beyond reason.

So far for DD5, differentiation in kindergarten means she gets to help others count and add and build block towers all day. Kindergarten is a two year program here so she also gets to teach the other kids sight words that she "learned" (already knew but had to repeat over and over) last year. She continues to be taught the letter sounds even though she's known them since she was two and she can now read fluently.

I can appreciate the problem DD presents to her teachers. Intellectually she is on par with a grade two student, emotionally she is five, in fine motor she's a four year old.

There is no work sheet that they can easily print out and give to her to meet her needs. Teaching her requires more thought than just looking at the next skill box to check in the kindergarten section of the binder. I think they have no idea how to handle this situation without a new specialized check list provided to them by the board - which they don't have so there's nothing to do. I think this is what they're doing with Blackcat's DS, just giving the tests and checking the boxes because they need their file to be complete.

I don't even think they understand what differentiation means. I know they know it means "different" but they don't seem to connect that the degree of "different" is dependent on the child. They just make up "different" stuff add a number here or there and then call it differentiation!

It is a sad state of affairs and so we continue to afterschool.

And kindergarten teachers are in a particularly difficult position as far as skills and training, because most of them are only certified for early education (age 2.9 through 8). Unless they have an additional certification, they literally have only been taught how to teach through second grade skills. So not only are they dealing with situations for which they have no prepared curriculum or routine experience, they have zero training as educators for any level of material beginning from grade 3.

Since early ed certification usually goes up through grade 2, you have to expect that many second grade teachers are in exactly this situation; they've topped out their instructional range. Actually, this might be a subtle argument for double promotion from second to third, if otherwise on the fence, as it raises the probability that the teacher will have skills for above grade-level instruction.

I think they would accelerate him one year for math if I pushed them (last year at this time they refused), but it would be pointless because he already knows the entire 3rd grade curriculum. No one is ever accelerated more than one year, which is odd because DD is in the same district and she's in fourth grade working out of a pre-algebra textbook. Her teachers are allowed to do what they want because she is in the gifted program (in a classroom where everyone is gifted), and DS is not in the gifted program because he's not old enough. Never mind the fact that DS is actually scoring higher than she is on their computerized achievement testing. They require kids to score 98+ percent accurate on written district tests in order to accelerate. If a kid makes a couple careless errors or hasn't been exposed to a single concept, they are below that. Say, for instance, they forget what an isoceles triangle is. They could be taught that in 1 minute, but if they miss it on the test, it could prevent them from being accelerated. At this point I think DS is better off sitting by himself and doing Khan Academy and 5th-6th grade level workbooks than being accelerated to third grade for math. We need to figure out something else for next year, though, and I've found some promising options.

Ugh, 98%. So, do you have to score that to be promoted to the next grade, for regular kids? *rolleyes*