Kindergarten Testing

Lily's school has thus far given her two standardized tests. One was administered by the school counsilor and Lily scored very high, way above average on her ability to read for a kindergartener. The other test was adminstered by her teacher and on that test Lily scored about average or even below average on her ability to read. The teacher wrote in the note that the kids were sat at a computer and had to listen to the computer asked questions and then respond.

The school says that these tests are given in order to establish where the children are when they enter the school in order to monitor if they are improving. I guess to assess if the teacher is actually teaching the kids.

In the first test there isn't a lot of room for improvement as she maxed out on the test. They were not testing if she could write her name, because she definetly could use some improvement on that. This was a test to see if she could read and she can read apparently very far above her grade level.

The second test was controlled by the teacher. I think that a) the teacher's impression of Lily is that she is not all that bright. Because she doesn't listen and she can't write. But this was a test to see if she could read. The categories on the test are things like can she recoginize her letters, match the capital and the lower case - she scored very low there - which is an obvious testing error becuase she could do this very well since she was two year old. Lily has a fondness for letters and numbers and flashcards are one of her favorite toys. She lines them up in ABC order first capital and then lower case - for years. If the tests says that she cannot identify which capital letter goes with which lower case letter the test is flawed. Or is it the test taker? B) This teacher's assessment of her job is based on Lily's improvement - is it really in her best interest to say that Lily has maxed out on everything at the beginning of the year. Doesn't really make her look all that good.

I guess that makes me sound like I don't trust or like the teacher. I do trust her and like her very much. I just feel that this test is not a reflection of Lily's abilities and that the other test backs me up. At least there is the other test.

I don't know if I should say anything to the teacher. Like, your test is completely wrong. I don't think that this test is reflective of anything other than the teacher's opinion and my telling her she is wrong is not going to change her mind. Perhaps I will say something at the parent teacher conference. I have not as of yet told the teacher that Lily reads at home.

Lily's hand writting is improving by leaps and bounds. We still get what I call nasty grams on her school work, things like:

practice your handwritting

practice writting your name

color in the lines

or my favorite

don't scribble

We have had one "good job". I saved it. I don't read the mean ones to Lily. We do practice handwritting every day. She loves to practice handwritting and we sit at the table and she is the teacher and tells me what to do and how to do it. At first I was correcting her and very worried about teaching her to make it perfect. But, that isn't how I taught her to read or count and that method has never worked with Lily, especially when I tried to potty train her. {shudders}

So I am taking a back seat, I am encouraging her to learn to write on her own. I give her the resources, like examples. But, I give encouragment for her efforts in order that the effort is fun and she will continue to practice. A part of me feels that I am not being hard enough on her and she needs to be told she is doing it wrong, when appropriate, but experience tells me that method doesn't work well when it is one on one her and me.

When I was helping Mandy with her homework as a elementary school student (she is now a senior) I would grab the pencil out of her hand, take the paper and show her how it was done. I was very smug and she always felt like I was saying she was stupid. So I sit on my hands, I have grabbed the paper from Lily, but I try, and I am working on listening and encouraging.

I guess I just took a major detour from the subject of kindergarten testing. I am a little frustrated that this one test did not accurately reflect Lily's ability to read. It did accurately reflect her ability to listen and follow directions. I guess I feel those are two entirely different things. But, I am asking you, does it matter?

One possible scenereo is that by the end of the school year Lily's teacher's test will show that she is now way above average and attribute Lily's success to her great teaching abilities. Another scenerio is that at the end of the year the teacher will still beleive Lily is on the slow side of average. I don't know that it actually matters what this one woman believes. As long as Lily does progress in the areas she needs help like writting and listening, abilities that are not tested. perhaps that is not entirely true as a person who is not able to listen well does not do well on reading tests where there are complex directions which must be followed in order to establish you understand the that B and b are both the same letter in different forms.