I just heard from a friend that the elementary school is going to try something new this year. They are going to group the highest readers together in a one class. That's in the neighboring district to mine. In my district, my Ker who by the teacher's word is advanced, will sail through 1st grader, will knock the 1st grader teachers socks off, etc etc etc got assigned to the teacher my oldest son had for K. Differentiation was not in this teacher's vocabulary. And my Ker's teacher had requested he be kept w/ one of his friends in his reading group, the highest group. there were 3 boys in the group and they all got along well. Well, all 3 boys were split up. When my oldest was in K, there was no one at his level in class so the teacher sent him out for reading w/ 2 other boys from 2 other classes - as you can imagine, w/ no consistent scheduling between the teachers, this happened about once per month. The rest of his time was spent coloring in items which begin w/ G etc. How can some schools be so up to date, and others seem so far behind? Also, all rising Kers are tested before school starts for placement. The tester was shocked that DS fluently read all the little books she had. Did they use this info to group the readers together in 1 class? No, they did the opposite and made sure no two were together. I ended up HSing my 3rd grader last year and will now be adding my 1st grader to the mix....I guess I should put that LOI in the mail today 8-)
sigh.......