Gifted Children Testing

My daughter is gifted. I know it, other people know it, she is freakishly bright. I'm not sure what I did right as a parent. Before she entered school, she was reading at second and third grade level. Imagine my surprise when she tested at kindergarten reading level during a school assessment. I hate to be the parent who waves an angry fist shouting "My child's better than that!"

I calmly spoke with the teacher and found out that she did not perform the assessment herself. An district staff comes to do all the testing. A few days later, the teacher made her own observations and found that my daughter can do a heck of a lot more than the district gave her credit for. Her teacher adjusted the reading material for my daughter, we move on.

Today I talked with another parent, who's daughter is at the same reading and vocabulary level with my darling. Turns out they tested her for Advanced Placement Program and ....didn't pass. She did not want to switch school anyway, and signed up for testing for curiosity's sake.

What was upsetting is that this child should have pass the APP requirements with flying colors! She tested low on vocab, which is absurd! This girl is talkative. She is not afraid to use no-so kindergarten words. Like my daughter, she is also a biracial/minority child.

After some discussions with the teachers, we see a pattern emerging. Other minority children are testing lower than their classroom teachers' observations. There are discrepancies between the district's assessment of a child of color and the actual performance level. It was suggested during this conversation that the district assessors may not know or be comfortable working with children of color.

To make a jump in my argument, without having seen an assessment in progress, I ask if the racist undertone of white academics is responsible? Could this be? The assessor walks into the a certain low performing school, or a poor neighborhood and mentally marks it as have low potential for gifted students. If a student of color struggles and pauses while sounding out a word, the tester assumes the child does not know the answer. Perhaps the same pause in reading can happen with a white child in a more well to do neighborhood and the same tester may give the child more time and encouragement because he or she knows this kid can do it.

I don't have a big file of examples and data. I do think the incident noted here should raise a red flag in the implementation of advanced placement testing.