Ms. Hernandez kept gushing over Jackson. He's reading at more or less a first-grade level -- he tested out of his kindergarten words right away and knows almost all of his first-grade words. And, to be honest, if he was tested on any of the words from second grade through the fifth grade, he'd do pretty well on them, too. He's writing well, although he needs help with penmanship. And he's great at both math and science.
So here's the funny part: Ms. Hernandez kept apologizing that Jackson didn't get all 4's, which is the best grade a kindergartener can get and, of course, completely in her power to give. "I wish he could have gotten all 4's. He probably should have gotten them," she said. "But I wanted to give him something to work for."
Just to get this straight -- the best reader in his class, who was so excited by the book he was reading in class that he went home to create his own version of it (more on that later) -- needs something to work for?
I think it's an interesting look at how schools work now (at least in California), with No Child Left Behind. Schools -- and kids and teachers -- aren't measured by how good they are at something. They're measured by how much they improve. So even if the kid starts out solid, there's a need to rig the system a little bit to show them getting better. Ms. Hernandez will have a kid who got mostly 3s this time getting mostly 4s next time.
We were annoyed by all of this at first. But we're OK with it for the reason that kindergarten grades, especially in the first trimester, mean exactly nothing. And if it helps a great teacher look a little bit better, that's OK, too. But mostly we're OK because Jackson is a brilliant little kid who loves school and is thriving -- and it doesn't matter at this point how that is measured.
1 comment:
Miles got almost all 3s his first trimester of K too. 1st grade for both kids has been much different...and thereafter too. Weird.
Post a Comment