Here it is all about growth. Measured growth. So a kid getting 99%tile on a computerized adaptive testing (STAR) doesn't show growth necessarily. But really what can they do but let the child read above level books for independent reading? My son's school really didn't have a ton of materials at his reading level for a small enrichment group and when they found a book that he adored no one else in the group liked it (probably above their level) and so they abandoned it and he read it on his own.
In class I was okay with him reading some below level stuff because it was still good literature to be explored. What they had to realize was that in 4th grade what was a novel study for one group (Stone Fox) was a short story to my son. They were all okay with that and just worked around it. But really that was the problem with some things that he could read them so darn fast. You better have something to entertain him while the others were reading so slow. And if you want to send him to the library every 30 minutes for another Geronimo Stilton book that is more of a pain than getting him the complete collection of Sherlock Holmes.
