The Lee Profile

From the desk of Hope….

While working at ERG this summer, I received a phone call from a parent who sounded nervous about calling our office. She spoke in a whisper, and her voice was shaky. The reason for the call was unclear to me for about the first five minutes of our conversation. Finally, I connected all of the dots. She was concerned about her son, Lee, academically (The name of this child has been changed for the purpose of confidentiality.).

Since opening our tutoring service four years ago, we have talked with many parents who are in pain because they see their child struggling in school. They are embarrassed and hesitant about reaching out for help. I look at it differently, however. Are you embarrassed when you sign children up for piano or baseball lessons? No. You are excited because they are learning something new, improving and getting a great opportunity to grow as an individual. Their academic life should not be viewed any differently.

I began an interview type conversation with Lee’s mother. She revealed to me that “something just wasn’t right” with her son.  He was having trouble with school and she couldn’t put her finger on what was going on. She started looking through the yellow pages and landed upon ERG. She went to our website and noticed that we offer assessments in reading and thought this may be a good starting point to figuring out the “problem” with Lee.

There was a sense of urgency in this concerned mother’s voice so I met with Lee right away for an assessment session. ERG assessment sessions “unpack” the literacy life of a learner in order identify strengths and weaknesses. This information is then turned into a plan for teaching and learning.

The day of the assessment, Lee and I sat down to talk about how he feels about himself as a learner, how he feels about school, his interests related to reading and what he perceives as his needs. In this initial conversation, Lee painted a realistic picture of himself noting that he loves school and does fine with his “work” but feels he needs help with comprehension.

So we got started with the assessment. I started with an initial word list that helped give me an idea of where to start with actual reading. Lee scored 8th grade level on this assessment (Lee is a rising 6th grader.). I decided, given this high score on the word list, to start with an end of fifth grade text. Lee read the text with 100% accuracy and then we delved into comprehension questions. I started with easy “within the text” questions and then moved to harder inferential questions, “beyond the text” – no problems.

I take the text up to the beginning of sixth grade. Same outcome – Lee has high accuracy and met expectations with comprehension. Lee also seemed to be a very good thinker. I move on to a third assessment to cross check my findings and once again Lee met grade level expectations.

After the assessment was over, I conferred with Lee and his Mom. We went over the results of his assessments. I asked them, once again, tell me the reason for the call to ERG and to articulate the problems they are perceiving related to Lee’s academics. It was in this conversation that Lee and his mother revealed to me the real problem. Lee has not scored well on his end of grade tests (EOG) in third, fourth and fifth grades  and the middle school to which Lee wants to attend has been communicating concerns about his “numbers”. This was extremely disappointing to the family and has thrown them into a “tizzy”.

Ahhhhhh….  the picture was becoming clearer to me now. Lee fits the student profile that is proficient when doing authentic work but then has trouble transferring his knowledge when his ability is measured in such narrow terms as an end of grade test (EOG).

Learning this key piece of information about Lee put me me into a reflective state of mind asking rhetorical questions. Think with me for a minute about the following:

*Should it matter that Lee is not a good tester? He loves school, makes A’s and B’s and meets grade level and above grade level expectations when he is involved in authentic tasks.

*Should we teach Lee how to take a test or would this be sending a mixed message to him such as…..you are a good reader and comprehender but let me teach you how to un-engage with comprehension and help you learn how to search for answers to questions?

*Are we over testing in schools and placing too much emphasis on standardized tests and not enough on the work and effort students are putting in day to day in the classroom?

*Is there a better way to assess students other than standardized tests? Can we do several different kinds of tests, both qualitative and quantitative, to allow for differences in learning?

*In real life what is more important being a good tester or being a good thinker?

These are the BIG questions that are being debated in the field of education right now (and probably will be debated forever). Lee is a perfect example of why we need to keep thinking about the best way to assess what our students know and are able to do.

Please post reactions, opinions, thoughts, and questions on this topic. We are smarter together!