The Po Show

Keeping Score

We got Matthew's state tests scores from last year, and I was rather taken aback. He scored a "2" on the math test, which is the "Partially meeting the learning standard" level. His score was literally one point above the necessary score for that range. Two fewer points and he would have been at the "Not meeting the learning standard" level.

The previous year, he scored a "4" on the state math test, which corresponds to "Meeting the learning standard with distinction." The year before that, he scored the highest possible score given on the test, meaning that he answered every question correctly.

I have always said I don't give a flying rat's ass about state tests, that I hate how schools "teach to the tests" before they are given, to the exclusion of other subjects, how they are a product of No Child Left Behind that have had a horribly negative impact on how teachers are forced to teach. I was really happy to hear that while they have to administer the tests, the staff at Matthew's school basically just tell the kids not to worry about them. They do not alter their curriculum to time lessons to when the tests are given, and they ask the kids to just do their best.

I know math became difficult for Matthew in third grade, and that continued through fourth and fifth grade, because he could not memorize his multiplication tables. And so much of math during those years hinges on being able to automatically know them. Matthew could figure out in his head what seven times eight was, but it took a minute, and all those minutes add up when you have to multiply three digit numbers together. It continues with operations with fractions, and decimals, and so on. It's better now, in that his memory for multiplication has improved, but back in January when he took the state test, he still couldn't remember his times tables at all.

Also, the focus of last year was getting him settled in, getting him emotionally stabilized, and that has happened in ways that are jaw-dropping. He was going over his goals for the year with his therapist, and when they got to "social skills with classroom peers," he casually said, "Oh, that's not a problem anymore." (!!!!) So academics took a big backseat last year, as was necessary.

Still, this child is a freaking mathematical genius, when it comes to theory and underlying reasoning principles. I know that has little to do with mechanics, that these tests don't measure what he is capable of understanding, but seeing this score was disconcerting, contradictory to my conception of Matthew. But I need to get over it, because the true measure of what he is learning and how he is growing comes from completely different sources than these state tests.

It's a challenge for me, being a life-long "good test taker," to accept this, but deep down I really do know the score.