LD kid and grades

[Anonymous]

I'm a new poster on this thread. Thanks middle school teacher for your perspectives. I only wish my DD could have you as a teacher. My DD has the same problems as the OP with failing tests. She is now in high school, and in every single class the grade comes down a full letter grade after finals. She has an IEP, but nothing seems to have changed with her test grades. So frustrating and worrisome for getting into college. She does do well on papers and projects, which helps pull her grades up. In fact the disparity between As on her projects and Fs on her tests is what helped us get the IEP in the first place. No real advice here, but we're in the same place you are, OP.

[Anonymous]

OP here -- I had a meeting this morning with his math teacher and speical ed teacher (who is in the class with him). While the teacher was very nice she clearly has no idea about his IEP and leaves all of that up to the SpEd teacher. Her approach was more like, "he will be fine, why are you in here." On the other hand his SpEd teacher was great. She was telling me the strategies she is using for him like giving him only one test question at a time so he doesn't feel overwhelmed when he sees the test page full of problems and working with him on redoing the test together rather than the typical approach of retaking the test. She expects that his grade will move up and feels like he is transitioning very well. She recognized how hard he has been working and thinks he is doing very well for only two months in.

Thank you all for pushing me to set up the meeting. I am glad I did it and feel better about how he is doing.

[Anonymous]

You might not be receiving all accommodations. In math, one type of accommodation can be to use a math facts table, or to have a checklist style set of steps to apply to a math problem or calculation. These accommodation types can be used on summative or all other testing. It is typical accommodation for exec. functioning difficulties where kids have trouble remembering or working thru a set of steps systematically.