Test prep for the Ohio Achievement Assessment is underway. They have been working with the children on math with tutoring sessions in class. Wonderful! Because my child missed their END OF THIRD GRADE score target of 400 by seven points when the test was given at the BEGINNING OF THIRD GRADE in October, she is now being pulled for Leveled Literacy Intervention to prepare her for the OAA reading portion.
Here's our beef. No one ever contacted us. It isn't like I'm not at the school a few days during the week and fully reachable. Shoot no. They pulled her out of the classroom, plunked her into tutoring and let us know when she came home announcing that she was told that, "Mom, you are wrong. I did fail the OAA. I failed and now I'm in reading tutoring." I told her that yes, she did miss the end of the third grade year target by 7 points, but she took a test for what she would learn during third grade at the beginning. (Think Willy Wonka and the teacher saying he was going to give a test on Monday on the material before they had learned it.)
The fact of the matter is that K passed their Third Grade Guarantee. She did get their required score to move on to the fourth grade. No biggie. This year, she has been on merit roll all year. She has had a B in reading for the entire year. She is not an advanced reader, but she is an on-target reader. I can't ask for more than that.
So, Hubs reports that K came home and cried hysterically on the couch for an hour over this tutoring and the fact that she "failed." Really? They have to do this with her? I have about 5 e-mails out to folks including her teacher, the tutor and the principal. I'm a parent right now. I'm not the President of the PTA at this moment. Treat me like the highly involved parent I am. Give my husband and I the opportunity to be involved with our child and in the decision making process of her having additional tutoring. The math tutoring she receives pulled her out of social studies and as a result, her grade dropped two whole letter grades from one grading period to the next.
Hubs was willing to go up this afternoon. I asked that he wait.
I'm mad that this stupid state mandated test has taken over once again and now they want to pull her out of science. I've e-mailed everyone and told them that she is NOT to be pulled for reading tutoring. Send me work home to help supplement her learning with. That's fine. We can't have her falling back in more grades to get help in others. Then, all she'll be getting is help because she won't be around for any of the original teaching.
UGH!
1 comment:
I've said this many times and I'll say it again: public education is BROKEN. It's so broken I don't even know where we would have to begin to fix it.
All we do is test test test children so all they're learning is how to pass a test. In many cases this supersedes everything including critical thinking skills.
In VA right now, teacher evaluations are now being linked to children's test scores. I think this is utterly ridiculous! Yes, there ARE ineffective teachers out there, but the majority of the ones I know are working their butts off, giving 125% and there are still kids who, for whatever reason, bomb tests.
AND, let's think about this for a minute, if you knew your evaluation and pay was going to be linked to the children's test scores, would YOU want to work in an inner city or "failing" school? You bet your sweet patootie you'd be hard-pressed to find an educator willing to do so. ARGH!!
So, I repeat, public ed is broken. I could rant on and on about such issues and about parent involvement (over AND under), and the rest, but the truth of it is, almost every teacher who is in a classroom right now is there because they love their babies and want the absolute best for them and are there because they believe they can make a difference--and they do.
How irritating you had no clue what was going on with K until she told you. That is RIDICULOUS, especially given the fact you are CONSTANTLY in that building. I hope things level out and that K is able to get back into the swing of things. How dreadful to be a young child and have this much pressure on you. :o( (FYI, it seems to be this way all across the country, not limited to OH.)
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