Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy Stanford Achievement testing/out of level

Awwww...thanks so much for the support and cheers! The principal said they do the testing in April and we will have the results back before the end of the school year. I'll let you all know how it works for us.

On a side note, we have run into some interesting issues with MrWiggly, stuff I thought we were successfully avoiding. He has become very self conscious about being the youngest in his class. He told us that he has stopped telling his friends that he is 6, because they don't believe him and tell him that he "can't" be 6 in second grade. The problem is his birthday is coming up in two weeks. I asked him what he's going tell everyone and he calmly replied, "I'm going to say that I'm 8 because they already think that I'm 7!" Oh what a tangled web we weave! We've had a talk about how he can't keep that up and needs to be honest about his age, but he wasn't buying it. We'll have to keep working on that issue.

And, he also shared with us that there's a boy in his 2nd grade class who is teasing him and calling him a "nerd". Ugh. I had really hoped that this wasn't going to come up for much longer. I can't believe that he isn't even 7 yet and has been pegged by classmates. He hears me and his siblings talk about being geeks and nerds, but it is with love and affection for who we are, not the derogatory use of the words. So, we've had to have that talk, too.

I guess what I've read and heard is all true - it is a long journey with new things to address as you travel the road. Thanks to all of you for being here. Having this supportive community helps a lot.

My kids are required to test at the grade they're officially in for state-mandated tests. The results aren't available until August (isn't in strange that they test to assess the "year's" materia in Feb, when there are 3 months of school left? DS 9 came home saying he went blank on one math question--drawing a "net" of a figure. He found out later that it was how it would look when "unfolded" flat. I thought, why can't they say "what would a prism look like when unfolded flat?" instead of terminology ("net") that some kids aren't familiar with? Skipped kids are at a "disadvantage" because they may not have been exposed to this vocabulary, even though they could easily have answered the question, if asked clearly.

DS 9 has scored "advanced" in all areas (less than 2 % in our state). His first year testing, the teacher told me he wiggled and squirmed, and ended up laying on the floor to work on it (nice teacher to accommodate, eh?) DS 13 just had a week off high school because only the juniors are required to test and the tests are such high stakes now, they wanted to clear the school so there were no distractions. Does that sound like it's in the best interests of the students? That doesn't count the week off they had during the sophomores' HS competency exams!

RE:"Nerd". I am so disappointed that some things don't go out of mode. That word, from when we were kids, is so stupid. Remember Nancy Reagan's campaign about Just Say No. There should be a campaign about how It's Cool to be Smart. Girls especially are susceptible to downplaying their intelligence to be accepted--key argument in single sex education. It is a struggle socially for these kids because others actually want them to fail to prove they're human. Sometimes even teachers.

I don't like name-calling/labels entirely. I just had a "discussion" with one DS who uses the word "gay". He tells his brother "that's a gay idea" or "a gay somethingorother". I told him it was no different from being rascist or hateful of others because they're different. My morning tirade--people are no better or worse than one another based on skin color, sexual orientation, religion...then the MLK Jr bit about judging on the quality of character.

Great morning tirade, cym! I couldn't agree more.

Ooo yes cym! You go. I also couldn't agree more!

Testing now! How stupid!
What are they going to do for the next few months - coloring books :-) (well, my 7th grader does that in LA, so I should not be surprised)
This whole education is a huge mess for bright kids.
I wil repeat what I have said before - a misbehaving, difficult child will get a one on one teacher but my son might be send to after school detention for reading during Science, where his grade is 105% - A+ (granted, he never went to detention, but the teacher takes the book away every time he manages to sneak one from home . Can you imagine that I do forbid Ghost to take books that he is currenly reading to school !!! What kind of a mother am I?
Well, he can take one on Fridays, as it is a "reading day" in LA class - IN 7TH GRADE!!!)
Why do I have such high expectations???

Very interesting article in last month's Atlantic Monthly http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200801/miller-education arguing that schools should be nationalized (there shouldn't be local/state authorities causing such variation in education). I serve on a school board (charter school) and like our autonomy, but I absolutely understand the idea of centralizing (everyone should take the same, stupid annual test each year, not varying from state to state). Think of all the wasted resources in developing each test, grading them, analyzing data, etc. And that's just one aspect of schools.

what about just basics, like standard yrly test, benchmarks & standards--shouldn't every 4th grader be held to same standards? If we all have to adhere to No Child Left Behind as federally mandated and influencing so much of our kids' education, shouldn't that part be uniform? I wouldn't want to feds to dictate otherwise, but understand that most school boards are made up of ordinary people rather than professionals. These could vary in effectiveness.

I have very mixed feelings about standardization. If the standards guaranteed individualized education, I'd probably be on board. I'd love for local administrators to stop having their little petty kingdoms where their rule is law, even if their rule is dumb and bad for kids. Stupid seems to rise to the top, and I'd love to see the end of that.

However, I would frankly expect more crap (ala NCLB) out of standardization, not less. More bureaucracy rarely means a better fit for GT kids. They don't fit the standard, so standardizing tends to hurt them. I like that now there's at least a chance for a creative teacher to really teach a GT kid. I suspect standardization would go a long way to ending that possibility.

FWIW...

Part of why I'm involved in a charter school is exactly to get away from autocrats/bureaucrats. We've been revising our policy manual and first look at the district's. Their policy on reviewing books, videos, etc. that can be used in the classroom is monstruous--approvals needed, forms filled out, etc. We chose to delete all that from our policy.

I just thought the article on centralizing education was an interesting perspective, though I may not personally agree with the whole idea. One thing that I could see benefits from centralizing is the NCLB assessments. How do the feds say all students should be 100% proficient in reading, but each state can develop their own assessment? Doesn't that seem wacky? If you're proficient in NY, are you still proficient in CA? Of course I don't like the whole NCLB thing to begin with. I do see the article author's point about school boards and how Joe Blow school board member doesn't necessarily have qualifications.