Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment Parents not allowed to see test results?

I have talked with the school about allowing her to take a lower level book for enjoyment if she takes a harder book for her test. They have said that was okay, but it hasn't happened. My daughter is 8 and is shy about asking, so I have sent messages to her teacher specifically asking if she could do that on a particular day. It never seems to happen.

I obviously can't speak to the practice in your district or at your school. However, I did learn that our official "school record" includes a very limited number of items, at least partly for practicality reasons. We have over 100,000 students in our district and the paperwork/recording keeping would be expensive and cumbersome otherwise. Any tests mandated by law are part of the official school record and provided to the parents. Other tests may be requested through the school adminstration. In particular, my children had taken national tests in the younger grades (1st & 2nd) that I did not see until years later (when I requested them) and barely knew were adminstered at the time. In our case, the district wasn't trying to hide the scores. It simply was no big deal to them and in fact the scores for the whole school were all compiled together and the adminstrator had to manually blocked out the other students' scores to show me my children's scores. Ultimately, the administrator had to figure out how to generate an individual student report through the district, which took some time but I obviously didn't pressure him because there was no reason to hurry. Sometimes the school provided testing to catch potential problem students or to get a sense of the demographics for the school.

Your teacher may not have authority to release standardized test scores without the administrator's approval. You should just email one of the adminstrators and/or make an appointment to go in and review the scores.

Anytime I have requested testing information or scores on either DD8 or DD9 this is how it went -
I emailed or called the principal and asked for any and all testing they had done. The principal then gathered that info or told the current teacher to get that info for me and then a sealed envelope was sent home with the girls in their backpacks. I have received information on STAR, MAP, and AR on both girls; and state assessment scores for DD9. The first time I requested this info with DD9 I didn't know what some of the abbreviations stood for and I called the principal for clarification. She readily explained what each category stood for and what that meant in terms of progress and percentile, etc. Other than telling us parents if our child meets or exceeds, etc. on the state assessments, our school doesn't give out any other testing information of their own volition. They put all the tests on the school calendar so we know what day they test, but then they don't tell us how our child did. At least we can have the information if we ask, but I bet I may very well be the only parent in the last couple years to even ask for that information.

I agree with what some others have posted - I don't think they can keep this information from you, but you may have to go higher up the ladder than the teacher to get it.

In our district (in BC, Canada), the student's file is the property of the parent and the district is just the custodian, so... legally we have the right to see anything the file contains, including all test scores.

The only time I've been denied access to something in DS's file was when I asked to see notes taken by the TA, and I was refused for privacy reasons because in that particular instance she had made notes about several students in the same log. (I intended to asked if I could have a copy with the other students' names blacked out but I never did).

I worked as a volunteer in the classroom for several years working with this program. My kid's school stopped using this program above 4/5th grade because at that point the schools switched from 'learning to read' to 'reading to learn'. Plus since our school had many kids who read above grade level the school couldn't find appropriate books at a reading level that were age appropriate and in the lists. (And the school was a K-8) In my opinion this program works best when readers are still in that learn to read phase. To put it in perspective, fiction that average adult reads for 'fun' is only about a 8/9 grade level.

I second the suggestions she uses 'non fiction' books for her AR book. As to the scores, they might not be wanting to tell you because they are relatively meaningless. At this level she might not be improving like someone reading at the lower levels who improve by this measure rapidly. In addition from my memory the higher the level, the longer these tests take. My son more than once just gave up because he got bored of taking the test.

I appreciate all of the suggestions. I've been wondering if they may not want to show them to me because of a lack of improvement. I've been asking for her to be able to do something different because she just isn't getting challenged and that would support my argument. She reads a huge amount, but most fiction is below her level already.

School starts back next week, so we'll see what they say.

Did you go back and ask for the scores?

I think I would be more irritated that they are having the kids take the STAR test multiple times a year. That is a school that is teaching to the test, and then double checking that it is working. Ugh. What a waste of time.

I still have not been able to get scores. I did manage to talk with the principal and am hoping to meet with her to talk about a variety of issues, including this one.

My child took an assessment in K in our local parochial school and the teacher told me directly that neither parents nor teachers saw the results, but rather they were sent to the head Archdiocesan office. Needless to say, we did not last long at that school. I think different schools/teachers/admin. have varying opinions, for sure, about whether or not people should know their IQ. As a child, I had a huge suspicion that I was outside of the norm and I took it upon myself (in the same parochial type setting) to look at my file when the opportunity presented itself. I clearly feel that we have the right and the need to understand ourselves, so please know that you are not alone and there are probably a large number of people, especially in the United States, who feel they have the right and need to know. Good Luck! Don't let anyone make you feel strange for wanting to know; it is actually part of our nature to be so mentally curious.

If anyone is interested, I found a nice way to get the ZPD from star early literacy.

Our scores furnish these results, and I can ask for them at any time. Our issues as that the school could only administer early literacy below third grade, and I needed the ZPD on my advanced early readers. When I found the conversation. The school asked me for a copy. it's been pretty accurate, too.