What You Need to Know About State Mandated Assessments

You’ve probably heard about “Common Core.” Its official name is “The Common Core State Standards Initiative.”

The first thing you should know about the Common Core Standards and the associated Common Core Assessments is they are much harder than previous standards and assessments.

The goal of Common Core is to create consistency, and to break out, in detail, exactly what students need to know at the end of each grade. This starts in Kindergarten and goes through 12th grade.  In Florida, they changed the name to Florida State Standards  — with very minor changes to the Common Core Standards.

The idea is that with consistent standards, students who are graduated from high school will be ready to go to college, or to take a full-time job.

It has been sponsored by the National Governors Association (NGA) and the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO).

What Common Core Means To You

The bottom line… school work gets much harder, more quickly. The higher standards for high school graduation mean the standards flow backwards through each grade. In each grade the work gets tougher.

• Students who are running into challenges today will soon be challenged even more.
• Smart students who struggle and are falling behind will fall behind more quickly.
• Parents will need to pay closer attention than ever to how their child is doing in school, starting in first grade.
• We are already seeing the impact. More students are failing important math and reading tests. In the state of New York, the number of students passing one of these important new tests has been cut in half.
• Third Grade is critical. This is because up through Third Grade, kids learn to read. After Third Grade, they read to learn.
• Third grade retention rates are likely to increase by 50%
• This failure rate is often disproportionately high for smart, struggling students, and even for gifted students, who learn differently.

The solution is to be an  informed, empowered and proactive parent. A parent who takes immediate action. A parent who finds out if a child is learning differently, and follows up to work with schools, teachers, and other professionals, to make sure that your child is being taught the way your child learns best.

Parents have voiced their concerns:

The school is threatening to retain my child, I think I will pull my child out starting tomorrow

My child was doing well until this year and now he has gone from an A/B student to a C/D student– HELP!!!

My child is in private school and while we do not have to deal with the Common Core Assessments, my smart child is struggling

My child is being tutored 4 hours a week, but it is not helping.  What should I do?

Students with Dyslexia, a Learning Disability or ADHD used to be the struggling students. With the new and much, much harder Florida State Standards and Common Core Standards,…

now many smart and even gifted students are struggling.

Your child’s school may tell you that your child’s reading level is just below grade level, but there are three issues with that:

1. Schools often focus on Reading Fluency (how well your child reads out loud), when reading comprehension is the real challenge (how well your child understands what she reads)
2. School interventions often focus on improving reading and not reading comprehension
3. You probably need to look elsewhere to find ways to dramatically improve your child’s reading comprehension

Sue, the mother of a 7th grader, reported that her son’s school had assessed his reading and it was about a year below grade level. Then he completed our 3D Learner Assessment that showed he learned differently, had an attention issue, skipped words and lines when reading and his…

reading comprehension was 4 years below grade level.

Mom was furious because she had invested thousands of dollars in an excellent phonics-based program. The program had improved her son’s reading fluency (i.e. how well he reads out loud) but his reading comprehension (i.e. how well he understands what he reads) was still way behind.

No wonder he hated to read and homework was taking forever!

With the 3D Learner Program ® and a committed effort, this young man was able to make 4 years gains in his reading comprehension in 6 months. His reading speed doubled, homework time was reduced by 50%, and he became far more independent.

We have had many students like this one over the years. However, the new standards that are being implemented result in a significant number of students who are below grade level.

Up to half of the printed fourth-grade curriculum is incomprehensible to students who read below that grade level. 
A.E. Casey Foundation

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3 Things You Can Do To Help Your Child

1. To better understand how your child learns, and how you can capitalize on those strengths, DOWNLOAD Mira’s short, uplifting book “Life is a Ball, Don’t Put Me in a Box.”
2. Take our free Online Success Assessment. It will help you see if your child learns differently.
3. After taking the assessment, give us a call and ask us your questions. We’ll help you better understand what your child is dealing with, and what you can do to make a positive difference. You will also have the opportunity to join our weekly conference call.

If you have already taken our Success Assessment, put your child on the path from stress to success. Please call us.

(561)361-7495