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

Alot of grades are subjective, especially for things like writing essays, English, etc. It's unfair but that is the way it is. At the younger grades, I don't think it matters alot. I look more to how I think things are going for my kids academically.

I think you have every right to be frustrated. Both of my boys had one teacher who simply did NOT give Es for effort in the first report card. I found it annoying in subjects like spelling where they had straight 100%s on the advanced list. In other words - they were doing everything that could have been done! What exactly *would* have demonstrated excellent effort?

Even this year, my ds10 got his first progress report (which is a very *soft* report full of things like "understands 5th grade material" and had three categories for below level/making expected progress/above level)and he had everything marked "making expected progress." There was a note on the sheet (standard for everyone) saying that the teacher's goal for students was for them to be in that category. Really?!? My kid who goes to the middle school for gifted math is just average on learning 5th grade material? He is THREE grade levels ahead of the standard in math and that's "making expected progress"? But, like you, I love his teacher and so I decided not to fight that battle (the progress report isn't an official report card either). With the earlier teacher, who seemed to have a lot in common with your dd's teacher in terms of being a good teacher, but maybe almost TOO good because she felt like she knew all she needed to know about gifted kids and that she challenged everyone, I did choose to fight. It didn't change anything (since my second son also got all Ss the first term) but I just didn't feel comfortable knowing that he received effort grades based on what SHE wanted to prove, and not on his actual effort.

As far as the reading level, I do think that is a fight worth fighting. My concern is this: why is she being retested from the beginning when she already has proven competency at that level? Do they really have a problem with their students regressing? Their gifted students? If so, perhaps that is an even bigger concern. In the past, we've actually had this problem a few times (thank God both my boys are past these silly assessments). It usually happened when one teacher/aide/specials teacher didn't realize where the testing was supposed to start, tested them on the wrong level, and didn't understand how to administer. I found I had to coach my one son on how to answer (after seeing a few of the assessments) because he would KNOW the answer, but just not say everything the teacher wanted to hear. He didn't need hints, just the teacher saying, "and?" or "is that all you remember?" Once I did that, he actually skipped right through to the end and tested out. If you haven't seen these assessments (not just samples, but the actual ones your dd did) ask the teacher to provide them.

Just because you have a generally good situation doesn't mean that you have no right to ask for appropriate grading/testing/enrichment. I went in like the worried parent - "gee, ds has a 98% average in science and I thought that project he did was way above grade level, but he only got an S in effort. Is he goofing off in science class? What did he do differently from the kids who got an E in effort?" I found that the teachers really didn't want to say that no one got an E in effort, although eventually they admitted it. "Hmmm... is it a really low-achieving class this year?" Yeah, you can be polite and make your point.

Good luck.... don't feel that you should just be "grateful" that the school is doing anything at all. Your requests/concerns sound completely reasonable to me!

Regarding reading level... They test them every 9 weeks to see the progress (they track it, so supposedly testing every 9 weeks is a good thing). Reading specialist performs testing and my daughter done them since last year. Lowered AR level is not a cause of concern for me by any means as I am an opponent of the theory “the more you read the better you get” (at least, this is how it worked for me). What concerned me is her response where she also mentioned that all of second grade teachers got AR results lowered due to different objectives during testing: fluency vs. comprehension. I just got this vibe that we are “altering results” to conform to general expectations. It was amazing to watch the same vibe last year with other teacher during IEP meeting (gifted here is under special ed). She was asked how my DD is doing and response was: she is doing OK, she is right where she supposed to be at this level… So, you have a kid, 5 years old, who skipped (one of few), who reads at third grade level (tested by school, not what she actually capable of), does multi digit additions/subtractions, understands multiplications, divisions, etc, etc, etc… And all her teacher can say “she is OK, where she is supposed to be….”.

In general, the whole idea of public (and private as well I am sure) education that tells you “they all even out by the third grade” and “all kids are gifted” this is what bothers me. I am upset that sometimes this makes me doubt my child. I still sometimes have this “well, maybe they all really even out”, “maybe tests where just a mistake”. This is a painful to doubt your child because of teachers like these.

I understand, Morningstar! I have like friends' moms who are early childhood specialists and my own mom and dad (ec and primary Ed, but they are not ones to overpraise, let me tell you) telling me HOW advanced/rare/etcetc DD is, I guess bc they are not the ones having to teach DD, then I get very vague info from her actual teacher about HOW they are differentiating. Meanwhile DD spends a LOT of time with kids learning to read (like c-a-t, cat!). Anyway I agree, the low effort can help you artfully ask about challenging her. And grading is so bonkers as we've seen here, I'm glad I teach high school but yeah it can be silly! I at least could rate each student at that moment, knowing there was new working coming... A new book, say... But I KNOW some kids were beyond the class and once classes went up by 15 kids and I was tied to standards, it tied my hands a lot