School Days

SIGH.
Grace had "fun" at the school, but does not want to attend. Carl and I tend to agree, for many reasons. First, the stories from the principal and Grace do not seem to match up on several fronts. In our conversation in December, the Principal had mentioned that perhaps she ought to be in the 5th grade. I was encouraged. Then we went for the interview/tour and she saw Grace's size and said "she'd probably do well in the 1-3 room", because she won' fit in with the "iPod" crowd in the 4-6. *nod* We agreed with that. But, she said, we can do pull out for certain subjects to the upper school. *nod* again. We liked that idea.
The day of the "visit" came and went, and Grace was given age-appropriate work and nothing else.
We then sat before the Principal, who declared that she is "perfectly placed " in the First Grade this year and we should put her in as soon as possible so she doesn't "miss" anything in the curriculum. Did we MISS something? Did our previous conversations about her abilities not register? What is this based on?
(shows us a first grade , up-to-twenty, subtraction fact sheet, and describes her "comprehension activities " on a "horse" reader for the first grade)
Principal:"She did very well on the subtraction, but when the teacher asked her how she did it, she said she counted in her head. I think that shows she's placed correctly. "
*inward scream*
Anyway....
On the way home, Grace described her "reader" as being "about 10 pages long , with REALLY large font". *HOLY COW* They actually had her do an "Easy reader" for her comprehension. Then, from the back seat, Grace begins to do an impression of the comprehension questions: " What does a horse wear so that you can steer it?" ......"duhhh.....I don't know......a BRIDLE?!?!?"
On the bright side, she said the music teacher was WONDERFUL! She learned the entire song "Puff, The Magic Dragon" , which she hadn't had occasion to memorize before. We did get *something* out of the visit;)

Why , OH WHY do schools not do OUT-OF-LEVEL testing?


Forte