Do you have any thoughts about how to get around it? I feel very similarly, in part because I want to make sure that I have a clear sense of what the results do or don't mean. If I could go and spend time getting to know the kids my kids are clustered with, I would have some sense of whether or not they were appropriately clustered.
Gee, do you think the teachers could be taught to be good at noticing if kids were appropriately clustered? Or is it something that one has to have an unusually high IQ oneself to have that sense?
I do think that grouping that focusing on current achievement is the answer. Don't stop the reading test when you get one grade above agelevel - keep going and actually check all the kids. Then group, across grade if nescessary.
Same with Math, spelling, writing. It doesn't seem like such a big deal. Pretest before units and send the ones who already have it to the library for project work, or practice things that can be drilled on a computer.
((shrugs))
Grinity
