End of the School Year Blues.....

May I formally say that I am, ironically, a supporter of year-round schooling. I can, as a mother, appreciate how beneficial it would be to our children to have a shorter summer break, and a school term that ran longer than the normal 9 months with a 3 month summer vacation.

On Friday night, when DH came home he checked the mail. In the mail was one of those letters addressed to the parents of.... The sort that carries report cards, or official school letters. I opened it expecting to find the DD's results from the standardized tests taken in April. It wasn't. It was the result of a test called the Raven Standard Progressive Matrices, administered by the "Extended Learning Specialist" at DD's school. The letter starts out with defining the test: The SPM consists of 60 items arranged in 5 sets of 12 items each. Each item contains a figure with a missing piece, kind of like a jigsaw puzzle. Below the figure are alternative pieces to complete the figure, only one of which is correct. Each set involves a different "theme" for optaining the missing piece, and within a set the items are roughly arranged in increasing order of difficulty. The SPM measures visual perceptual skills and the ability to form perpetual relationships. It measures a student's ability to reason by analogy, which helps sudents to understand new material more readily. It also measures a student's ability to make sense out of complex data. The test was designed to be independent of language, culture, or formal school experience. It does not measure math skills, though it correlates with that ability. It also does not measure reading skills or your child's verbal ability.

IE: it's an IQ test of sorts.

The total score was possible out of 60. DD achieved 16 correct out of 60. Which put her in the 10th percentile, well below the "average" which ranged from 16% to 84%.

Quite honestly, I feel as though I've been told by the school "Your child's an idiot, and with one week left in the school year, there's not much you can do about it." I know that this is probably not how they intended it. But I hid this letter from DD, not even letting her know that it'd come, because I didn't want to discourage her about her own abilities. And then, yesterday, I called and talked to the E.L.S. for the school, and found out that the E.L. Program is what we used to call the "G.T. Program" (Gifted & Talented). He said that this test was origionally given back in Oct. (OCTOBER!!!!! I could have had some knowledge of this all winter!!!) but that when DD didn't test INTO the program, he disregarded the results (along with the results of all the other children who did not test into the program). Then last week he was informed that the parents of all the students who took this test STILL needed to recieve the results of this test, though I was never even aware she TOOK this test in the first place.

After finding out what this test was about, I called the office to ask about setting up a conference between myself, my daughter's teacher, and the principal to discuss DD's progress for the year. Even though this test was taken back in Oct. and even though it doesn't track her progress in the basics throughout the year, it's reminded me that with my child I must be ever-attentive as to her progress. I was reminded, with one week left in the school year, that it may not be in DD's best interest to pass her on to 4th grade next fall. And I hate to do that to her, for social reasons. But I would also hate to pass her on to 4th grade, knowing that she doesn't have the skills needed to keep her head above water, much less succeed.

And wouldn't you know it, the teacher mentioned this test to DD, and the fact that I was wanting to come in to discuss DD's readiness for 4th grade. And DH clarified that for her when he picked her up from Daycare with the statement that I would be discussing with the principal & teacher the possibility of holding her back. So I barely made it in the front door last night, after work, before I was subjected to yelling & crying over how mean I am to consider holding her back. (The yelling and crying from DD. DH understands though he also finds it almost heart-breaking.)

And of course, the teacher was planning on taking today (Tuesday) off, so I can't talk to her about it today. And tomorrow (Wed.) and Thursday I'll be in Jury Duty for the part of the day when the teacher would be at the school, so I won't be able to conference with her then. Friday, the last day of school, will be the next time I'm able to speak with the teacher & principal about this. At this stage in the game we should already be almost celebrating DD's passing onto 4th. Instead, because I haven't been as attentive as I realize I should have been, and because the school is content with the status quo, we're still struggling to decide if this is even the right thing for DD.

And I know that I'm going to face opposition from the teacher and probably from the principal. Mainly because this damned "No Child Left Behind" program has put them into a position of passing children that they KNOW aren't ready to be passed, or risk losing funding for the school & their teaching positions. I don't mean to sound like I'm blaming DD's lack of academic skills on the teachers individually, as I know they've done the best with what they've got. But they've also been consistently extremely reluctant to consider holding a child back, even if it's in the best interest of that child to have another year to catch up, before being forced to drop even further behind (in academic skills, though not in grade level) the rest of her class. I really do think it would benefit DD to spend another year in 3rd grade, reiterating with herself all that she's learned in one year, and solidifying the concepts that she doesn't have down yet. Hopefully by the end of that second go-round in 3rd grade, she'd be at the top of her class, having had sufficient time to grasp all the concepts before moving on to 4th.

So, I'm really kind of bummed these last few days, considering doing this to my daughter. I recognize that my primary job in life is not to make sure that she's an imbicilic social butterfly, but instead to make sure that she IS a mature, strong woman with a solid educational foundation underneath her upon which to build her future.

She seems to understand, sometimes, that this would probably be best for her. She seems to understand that she can't be a veterinarian without making decent marks in school so that she can get whatever college education is required for a veterinarian practice. And even on the days when she insists that all she wants to do is play hockey for the rest of her life (and one doesn't need to know how to read, write and do math to play hockey! *wry smile*), she WILL need to know how to read & write in order to read hockey contracts & sign autographs, and basic math skills will go into making sure she's getting paid enough to play. *big wink*

So, now all I've got to do is meet with the teacher & the principal & go over her scores from beginning of the year to now. I'm not 100% decided on if we'll hold her back, but I'm at the point where I really do think it'd benefit her more than it'd hurt her, in the long run. And I've been assured by other parents & past teachers that if she's not got a good foundation in 3rd grade, then she'll likely drown in 4th grade. That is the point where the basics of reading, writing, and math are used as a foundation upon which further academic knowledge is built & solidified. And if that foundation is so weak as to be unusable, then she'll never catch up. And we're already aware of how reluctant the teachers are to hold a child back, for fear of looking bad themselves. I don't see it as a failure on the teacher's part, and I don't necessarily see it as a failure on the student's part. In this case, as in some others, I see it as a legitimate validation that not all children are ready for advancement at the same time. There are some that pick things up more quickly (those generally wind up in the E.L. program) and there are those that pick things up more slowly. And rather than putting those slower-to-learn children in special ed. WHY not hold them back???? To get into the Special Ed. program, a child must be IN their "age grade" but be 2 years behind in their skills. And then they must be passed on to the consecutive grades with their age-mates, regardless of their skill levels, simply because they ARE in the Special Ed. program. I don't see that as a solution, I see that as a hinderance. You're still saying that the kid's got to be in the same class, but they just don't have to learn as much. Why not pull the child back a bit & let them get their foundation solidified before letting them build ever higher????

Anyway..... I know this has been another long, poorly written post. Thanks to all my friends who've read my meandering & ranting. Even if I don't write clearly sometimes, it really helps to solidify things in MY mind, and it helps to know that I've got friends out there in cyberspace who'll support me & back me up, even though most of you don't know me in person. It's great to have that support, esp. when one must go about being a "mean mommy" and flouting the conventions in the effort to do what is truly right for one's child.

Have a Blessed Day!