As a side note, does anyone have any experience combatting the argument that "our district is so great that the nationally normed tests aren't reflective of the material being used in the classroom - all our kids perform above average."
I suspect it wouldn't go over well to bring this up with your school officials -- but for your own information so that you can evaluate for yourself the school's claims of being above average, it might be interesting to look up your school district at:
How Effective Is Your School District?
In the end what matters to you is what they do for your kid, not what the school district may or may not be doing statistically for kids on average.
But more data may help you gauge how well they know their own performance.
