Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Report card or does her teacher really cares -long

This is more of “let me vent a little bit” post but hopefully someone can share their experiences as well.

So far I considered myself pretty lucky. Tested my DD6 last year (then 5), right before kindergarten just because her pre-K teacher insisted that she is “gifted for sure” (I was on a “she seems to be normal to me” side, as a lot of us). Testing was done at her current school since I am also “lucky” enough to be assigned to a school with full time gifted assessment specialist. Easily passed with highest scores in achievement/IQ. Grade skip was not an issue as soon as I mumbled this word – she is now 2d grader after 1st grade full immersion for half year last year.

She got 2d grade teacher that I hoped for as soon as I sent letter to principal requesting one. Her teacher has 20 years of experience, gifted certified (sic!), amazing recommendations from multiple parents on how much she pushed kids and how caring she is. My daughter runs to school every morning now (we had big issue with overall happiness last year as her 1st grade teacher wasn’t a good fit at all on personality level and who could care less about qualities of my child). Sounds great, right? Or, and we have gifted “program” that is 3 hour pull out once a week to talk about “stuff”. Well, could be worse… Except, my daughter still brining 100% on all tests/subjects, reads (still, after skip) 2 grades ahead by school assessment, etc. No differentiation of course and no letters from teacher “let’s discuss how to challenge her”).I was hoping that it is beginning of the year and I should give teacher “more time to settle”, get to know my kid...

So she brings her report card yesterday… Her reading level is lower at the end of the grade period compare to entrance test at the beginning 2d grade(so no “summer” kind of excuse we can pull here), also she gets all “2’s” on all accessed common core content standards and on top of it gets S (as satisfactory) in effort grade for Science… Let me tell you this – kids has ALL 100% on ALL assignments not counting in her “sciency” nature as many here can relate when she gets excited as soon as she hears “science experiment”…. The rest are “E’s”.

I am e-mailing her teacher to see why would she possibly give her “S” out of pure curiosity how this was decided on and how it is possible that her AR got worse. I am getting the following response: “I'm positive that … will be at the ... reading level in the near future, as we concentrate more on vocabulary and comprehension in second grade. The same goes for all her 'effort' grades.” What I am getting is that there are no real reasons I can give you to explain why it is what it is. I have to show progress to prove that I am a good teacher and since your kid is getting all 100% I cannot show her improvement without lowering her scores, even if it is effort only (since it is not measured by any “quantitative” measurements).

This pretty much topped all of my frustration. I was holding myself back for the past two months just because it is such a pleasure to see your child happy to go to school every day after half of the last school year’s teary mornings. I was also hoping that this teacher possessing “gifted” certification at least makes her aware of kids with different needs…

Now I see there will be no fairness, no “hey, you need appropriate challenge, since you already mastered all the areas, especially considering that you skipped a grade”, no “let’s show real picture of what this kid can do so that we can focus on what we can improve”. It all comes down to “scores” and “teacher evaluation” that ties to “improvement” and that disadvantages kids like mine. It is harder to show improvement in kids that are already mastered the grade level and word “differentiation” is a curse word around here.

I was plain told by her “gifted” teacher (from pullout program) that she was prohibited from going to classroom teachers and suggest any action regarding a kid unless specifically requested by the teacher… All my polite questions regarding this and that are stopped by these BS responses how wonderful my child is with the hint of “we already skipped her, what else do you want, “that” parent” feeling. I don’t care to hear how wonderful/amazing/smart she is. I am her mom, she will be amazing to me no matter what. It is about fairness in assessment of what you see in this kid who is in front of you and giving guidance as a teacher to what to work on. I am not asking about one-on-one instructions any more. I am not asking about making sure that she is working at her level of capabilities any more (after all, “all kids are gifted” here). At this point I am asking to fairly access her skills and capabilities and track them fairly so that I, as a parent, can see what to do and how to help her since system is failing her as many other gifted kids. I guess, I am mad at myself that I had this hope that I can find teacher who really cares about each kid’s success.

P.S. Sorry for being so excessively long and excuse my mistakes since this is not my native language. Don’t have anywhere to went…