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[quote=Anonymous][quote]Why would a school do this? My DC isn't school-age yet, but I occasionally read threads about elementary level issues. Assuming this thread is accurate, why would schools want to hold kids back from challenging themselves?

This might be a naive question, sorry if so.[/quote]

1. The schools don't have the staff to differentiate and the system is designed to make sure all kids hit a baseline not do the best that they can achieve.

If your kid is in a higher level reading group they are working independently. As long as they are well-behaved, they do the work but they are not receiving any instruction or effective guidance. They only benefit from being able to read more complex text and answer more complex questions. As long as they can learn on their own they can progress but once that stops they sit at the same level. The teacher only gets involved if they fall far enough to be near the baseline.

2. There are incentives in the system for teachers and principals to hold kids back. It looks very bad for a child to show no or very little progress in reading levels once they hit 2nd, 3rd, 4th etc. If you cap high readers to only 1 year above grade level you protect the next teacher and school for the following the year. The child magically goes up another grade level. A first grader reading at a 3rd grade level is a real problem for a 2nd grade or 3rd grade teacher.

3. MCPS is very clear in achievement gap goals. In schools with a mix of lower SES kids who don't have the advantage of parents reading at home and higher SES kids with parents who do read at home, there is a HUGE incentive to cap at one year.  The schools don't have the resources to actually close the achievement gap but they are held accountable for doing it. They will simply hold back the kids who are reading at a higher level and they met their goal of reducing the gap.

This happened first with math on a county-wide level. Math was more obvious because kids were placed in different classes. Reading groups were originally left alone by 2.0 and the politics of doctoring your numbers to close the gap but now 2.0 is working its way into those as well.  
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