After years of "struggle" and not "adamantly" advocate for DS' academic needs, but rather just let him learn at home at his own will while being bored at school, finally we have got something moving.
In the fall of 2009, we moved him to a GT magnet school in a different school district. He was miserable over there with both the teachers and other fourth-graders in the classroom. (He got along with fifth graders in the same classroom just fine). The pace was still slow over there. His test results were excellent over there, but overall grades were dragged down due to forgetting taking home the homework, or turning those in late, or not allowed to participate in graded class-time discussions/activities due to his "behavioral" issue. (Kids got bad exam results were yet allowed to take the tests again). He was the scapegoat most of the time and other kids caught on quick to tease him.
We were so frustrated in the tone of communication from the teachers (both written and verbal). We bit the bullet to do the assessment and consultation with Dr. Ruf and also applied for DYS looking for advocacy help. The results show that he definitely is at Leve-4 LOG and he also got accepted as a DYS. With the GT magnet school teacher did not even want to hear about what his WIAT scores are and could care less what he had done in a month at home on EPGY math, we decided to move him back to his original school starting after the New Year. In the meantime, he got his annual SCAT results back with 99pctl in math and 95pctl in reading, testing as a fourth grader. How the district GT coordinator stood by her teachers was disheartening as well.
So DS has been back to his original school since 1/4. But this time around, I was more upfront in what I am looking for. I showed them what he is doing with EPGY, all his assessment scores, and what concepts he has covered so far. Yes, he is still in a 4th grade classroom, but these are mostly the top kids at the school. He and couple other kids go to the GT enrichment sessions together, and three of them also do language somewhat differently from the other kids in the classroom. They also ability group math classes for the whole grade. But the second week of the school, he started talking about how to do things differently in the math class while the teacher was teaching one method. That sure got other kids who were learning new things confused. He received his consequence for his disruptive behavior from the math teacher. However, if it were for his "self-advocacy" and especially the understanding and approach the math teacher took, I would not have been here to write about this progress. The math teacher asked me to send her the list of math concepts that have been covered at home, and started giving him tests through grade 5 during instruction time :-) along with a MAP test. With those test outcome, he was then given WJ-III math component with broad score of 169 (lowered due to lower fluency score). The GT teacher and math teacher asked for a meeting with me on those results and showed me the flow chart on where they are on the subject acceleration process of the school district, and they were looking at moving him into the grade6 math class. Still couple more steps to go. But I said at the meeting that I would like to also request the assessment for grade acceleration and signed off on the applications the next morning.
He has just passed Orleans-Hanna with flying color and has been tested on end of 6th grade and 7th grade math of the school district curriculum, and got 83% and 70%. If he got one more problem correct, he would have passed the 6th grade test as well based on the "official" criteria. However, I think finishing up the 6th grade concept is right where he is, as that corresponds to his progress with EPGY. I just talked to the school GT teacher this morning and they still have to formalize the math placement, then we need to work out the transportation to the middle school during the day. (Both DH and I need to commute to work with at least 1-hr each way. The elementary and middle schools are not together. Neither are "busable" from our neighborhood). The grade acceleration assessment will not take place until the math acceleration is formalized and worked out, and assessment has to be done using their own process flow.
So no, we are not at a place that is really matching DS' ability and needs yet, but we are getting there, one step at a time. He is again a happy kid and he is now motivated to move ahead and learn more. We went to a local DYS get-together and he had a blast with another kid, and I learned of a lot of fun activities to do for him as well. We are plugging along and I keep the communication going with the school. It has been a learning experience so far, and I wish I had been brave enough to advocate for him in the past several years, but I am going to work hard to get that positive vibe going ...
This community has given me so much support over time. Many of you on the 2e board have given me so much encouragement and suggestions, Grinity, hkc75, Chris1234, benny, to name a few. Dottie, thanks for encouraging me to go ahead and apply for DYS (and linking my posts). Inky, when DS told me 269 on MAP-math, I could not wait to get to the link that you have provided on the results. Melissa, thank you for making EPGY affordable for us. I will sure posting back on our progress ...
) It is very encouraging to hear your success story. Thank you for sharing with us. keep up the good work, MNTCMom!
