Day 295: Tuesday, September 1

Can I just tell you how much I dislike charter schools? People pull their kids out of the public school system because of some random issue they have with the school and take them to the charter school. They don't have to follow the same rules and regulations the rest of us do, so they pretty much do what they want - i.e. tell people what they want to hear. Everyone wishes their kid was the smartest kid at school. I hate to say it, but that can't be true for every kid. However, charter schools tell most parents that.

Due to privacy issues I decided that I had to delete the next portion of my blog where I explained some scenarios. Even though my city, school, and even last name are not used, I still did not want the possibility of trouble. Let's just say that I had some surprises during reading testing today. Here's one of two of our handy dandy reading testing kits.

While testing my student who skipped first grade, I had a surprise. The mother said he ended kindergarten on an L. (First grade levels are potentially pre-A up to G/H while second grade levels are H through L. Just to give you a picture.) L is the end of second grade. So I started testing on an L. After it was too hard I got out the J book. Continued going backward through H, F, E, and reached a level D where the student could read comfortably. Notice that level D is in the beginning/middle of the first grade levels? And yet, against everyone's wishes, he is in second grade? Hmm, I wonder what might happen in the next couple of weeks. You might be able to guess what I would like to happen. Sometimes the state needs to allow an overruling of the power that is given to parents.