I know those reading level evaluations (our school uses lexile) aren't necessarily the best tools for assessing reading, but . . .
Should I be concerned that my DD's most recent score (beginning grade 4) dropped by several hundred points to around the score she had at the end of grade 2? We don't use the lexiles for choosing books, so in that regard it doesn't really matter. But I am wondering if this means she is regressing in some way. Her school gives the SRI at least 3 times per year and she usually makes big leaps upward. This is the first time I've seen any sort of drop, much less such a big one.
She had a pretty bad experience in 3rd and has gone from being an avid, "can't stop reading 24/7" child to someone who still likes to read sometimes but without the same fire. She lost of lot of her natural confidence. This has me feeling more sensitive about her language arts experience in school.
If it is a one time blip, I wouldn't be concerned. If it becomes a pattern of the numbers staying lower and not recovering or constantly bouncing around, then I'd worry more. For instance, my one dd who is pretty consistent in her test results has had a few instances where we've seen scores drop like this. It is usually related to anxiety or just a bad day. It is also something that, the next time she tests, goes away (i.e. the next set of test scores is back in line with the prior scores or higher). My other kiddo is truly erratic and may see major drops that take years to return to places they were before or which vary radically. She is 2e which likely plays into it.
The only time I've seen something in the case of my more consistent one that gave me pause regarding her education was with her math MAPS scores in 4th grade. It reflected what I saw in her learning experience that year: she progressed almost not at all and her scores were nearly identical from the fall to spring. She had also been taught virtually nothing in math that year so it felt like a legitimate stagnation.
Given that the 3rd grade learning experience was poor for your dd, I think that it is valid to approach her teacher with a discussion about what can be done to reignite the fire re reading, but I'd suspect that the SRI lexile score this time doesn't reflect a true regression. We saw a loss of love of reading for my oldest in 1st grade with a truly awful teacher. For her, all it took to get it back was a lot of reading time with me with good books. I homeschooled her for the end of that school year so it was easy to find the time but we essentially read the Harry Potter series together: she read a few pages then I read a few pages. Your dd is older so that may not be the series for her (or she may have already read it), but if you can find something in a genre she loves and maybe spend some time reading together, perhaps it will help (?).
I'm sorry that she's had a bad experience like that. It is crummy to see a child who once loved to read have that extinguished. FWIW, mine loves reading again but still bears a grudge against her 1st grade teacher and she's a 10th grader now.
We've found high fluctuations in Lexile scores for our kid for 3rd (when it was first measured) thru 6th grade. Here are the scores in time sequence:
SRI Grade 3 Mid-Year 1449.000
SRI Grade 3 Spring 1416.000
SRI Grade 4 Fall 1453.000
SRI Grade 4 Mid-Year 1510.000
SRI Grade 4 Spring 1473.000
SRI Grade 5 Fall 1496.000
SRI Grade 5 Mid-Year 1584.000
SRI Grade 5 Spring 1734.000t
Grade 6 Fall (switch in tests) 1623
Grade 6 Winter 1565
Grade 6 Spring 1468
Her lowest score in 6th grade is pretty close to her first one in 3rd grade. In other words, pretty random - it is an imperfect measure.
amylou - Those scores aren't surprising. Your daughter has probably consistently been a better reader than her teachers up to this point. It's hard to expect a teacher with an 8th grade reading level to improve your daughters scores, which are probably higher than the average college student!