I wonder if a kid reads high level books for enjoyment and gets the nuance, etc, maybe reading dry passages and then "identifying the main idea" or whatever doesn't really hold their interest. I'm not sure that a reading comp test can ever really accurately measure the way a sophisticated reader who loves reading integrates a text. Maybe?
I think you may have something here. She is not a kid that likes to really show what she can do and if she isn't interested in something, moving Heaven and Earth will not change that. She will do the bare minimum that she has to do then she is done and once she has done something and knows she understands it she doesn't see a need in doing it again just because the teacher tells her she needs to. This is part of our frustration in trying to figure out how to best advocate for her.
As a side note - the month after she took the Explore she took the school's reading state assessment. We will be curious to see how she did after taking the above level test.
