And it told us that except for the rare bright spot —
like a principal dedicated to academic growth for all learners, but who went on sabbatical a year after we changed to her school, and a teacher who volunteered to teach
sixth -
grade math in a fifth -
grade classroom — we would not be getting the services needed for our children.
There are so many stories that I could tell — the story of my guidance counselor's
sixth -
grade, learning disabled child who feels
like a failure due to constant testing, a principal of an elementary school who is furious with having to use to use a book he deems inappropriate for third graders because his district bought the State Education Department approved common core curriculum, and the frustration of
math teachers due to the ever - changing rules regarding the use of calculators on the tests.