I hate how the teachers at our school won't tell you where your kids really stands. Anyone else?

[Anonymous]

We never got straight answers in elementary school.

We got our kids assessed outside of school. It was good to have that data. By that time, it didn't matter as much how they were doing in class.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Almost all of DC's teachers have mentioned that she really stands out in the class, but I wouldn't be surprised if teachers were hesitant to give comparative information other than saying your child is near the top. I don't think it's really necessary other than knowing whether your child has a good chance of getting into the CES, etc - but even that is pretty arbitrary and not always predicted by teachers.

Our teachers won't even tell us if a child is near the top, middle, or bottom. We do ask this explicitly. I'm not asking for a detailed breakdown of how other kids are doing but it is helpful to know if my kid is at the bottom in a certain subject or all of them. We wasted one full year with my kid at the bottom of the class being told he is doing fine. He got really depressed and withdrawn because he was struggling but we kept reassuring him that everything was "fine" because his teacher said it was fine. Finally the guidance counselor called us in and she was more frank. She couldn't tell us to get him tested but she used language that made it clear he was not okay despite the fact the teachers kept saying he was okay.

Why not just ask what skills the kids are learning, and which ones your child is mastering/working on/needs more help on? Why do you need to know where they are in comparison with their peers?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I was trained in grad school to never talk about a child's progress as compared to the class.

Then the teacher needs to refer to national norms for comparison.

[Anonymous]

National norms only help if the kid takes a nationally normal test. I couldn't care less how my kid does on PARCC since only a few states take it now. Those scores are a joke. One of the many reasons I now pay tuition to a private school. They take nationally normal tests so I have an idea how my kid really measures up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:National norms only help if the kid takes a nationally normal test. I couldn't care less how my kid does on PARCC since only a few states take it now. Those scores are a joke. One of the many reasons I now pay tuition to a private school. They take nationally normal tests so I have an idea how my kid really measures up.

MAP tests are nationally normed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:National norms only help if the kid takes a nationally normal test. I couldn't care less how my kid does on PARCC since only a few states take it now. Those scores are a joke. One of the many reasons I now pay tuition to a private school. They take nationally normal tests so I have an idea how my kid really measures up.

MAP tests are nationally normed.

Never heard of them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We never got straight answers in elementary school.

We got our kids assessed outside of school. It was good to have that data. By that time, it didn't matter as much how they were doing in class.

How do you go about doing this?

Not the OP, but I feel like i never truly know how my kid is writing. Never get concrete suggestions as to how my kid can improve. Would love to have more subjective info. And we can’t afford private school but maybe this is an affordable way to monitor my kids’ progress?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We never got straight answers in elementary school.

We got our kids assessed outside of school. It was good to have that data. By that time, it didn't matter as much how they were doing in class.

How do you go about doing this?

Not the OP, but I feel like i never truly know how my kid is writing. Never get concrete suggestions as to how my kid can improve. Would love to have more subjective info. And we can’t afford private school but maybe this is an affordable way to monitor my kids’ progress?

Do you see the stuff your kid writes?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We never got straight answers in elementary school.

We got our kids assessed outside of school. It was good to have that data. By that time, it didn't matter as much how they were doing in class.

How do you go about doing this?

Not the OP, but I feel like i never truly know how my kid is writing. Never get concrete suggestions as to how my kid can improve. Would love to have more subjective info. And we can’t afford private school but maybe this is an affordable way to monitor my kids’ progress?

Do you see the stuff your kid writes?

NP, but I get this part of the discussion -- I know enough to know that I should not be comparing my 10-year-old's writing skills to my law associates, but I have no idea what it is reasonable to expect from a 10 year old.

[Anonymous]

Conferences have always gone like this everywhere! Nothing has changed.

Parents have changed. Now they want to know exactly where their child is amongst her peers. Why? Anxiety. it's a real sad state of affairs. KIDS ARE PICKING UP ON THIS, PEOPLE!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We never got straight answers in elementary school.

We got our kids assessed outside of school. It was good to have that data. By that time, it didn't matter as much how they were doing in class.

How do you go about doing this?

Not the OP, but I feel like i never truly know how my kid is writing. Never get concrete suggestions as to how my kid can improve. Would love to have more subjective info. And we can’t afford private school but maybe this is an affordable way to monitor my kids’ progress?

Do you see the stuff your kid writes?

NP, but I get this part of the discussion -- I know enough to know that I should not be comparing my 10-year-old's writing skills to my law associates, but I have no idea what it is reasonable to expect from a 10 year old.

That is a good question to ask your child's teacher.

[Anonymous]

ask your child. DD knows reading level for every child in her class as well as how good at math they are.