Evan has an I.Q. of 90! The National Average?

[Vandyyke]

    Last year at this time I was approached by a 2nd grade teacher, "You are so good with....."  Before I continue I should explain that when you hear someone begin with this phrase, "You are so good with..." you know you are in trouble. Anyway, "You are so good with problem children, you are so creative and inspired, the Principal and I have decided to give you Evan." I will now elaborate on Evan. Evan has been at our school since day one. He has a long record of behavior problems such as threatening to kill other children, telling girls he would like to &^#* them. Not bad for 3rd grade. Evan has long stringy unkept hair. His parents encourage him to take up an Ozzy Osborn persona. Did I mention they want Evan to work in Hollywood? The kept after me to sign a release form. They have smothered him with affirmation, praise.  To say the least, poor self esteam is not an issue. On the first day of school Evan strutted into my classroom with his best Fonzarelli attitude. "What's up teach!"  O.K. by now you are thinking, "This kids got some problems." (I haven't even scratched the surface yet.) Evan is academically challenged. He is 1-2 years below grade level in reading, Language Arts (We are talking third grade.) Math is worse. Also, Evan can't tie his shoes. He gets around this by wearing slip-ons, or boots to school. Because Evan wants to be the next Hanna Montana I gave him a lead part in a reader's theater play. We practiced from November to May and performed at "Open House". I was hoping Evan's parents would see Evan's performance. This is because Evan couldn't get through his part without stumbling over words and mispronouncing them. But of course they nor Evan showed up for Open House. With the population I work with this kind of problem isn't anything out of the ordinary. Every year I get 2 or 3 kids like this. Yet Evan is different. Evan has this extremely irritating way saying, "I don't get it." after I have just spent 15 minutes demonstarting/modeling to the class how to write a paragraph. When I say modeling I mean very simple structured steps, I start with a topic sentence, go around the room, have everyone share their topic sentence, then add a detail sentence, go around the room, have everyone share a detail sentence......etc... No good, Evan still doesn't get it. (This is just a daily example of what I go through every day with Evan) So here is the kicker! I figure Evan has a learning disability. How can a third grade kid perform at this level unless something is wrong?  After ten years of teaching I have had 4 other students who were in the same boat. Now comes the hard part! I have to bring  Evan up for testing. What I mean by this is that a teacher just can't walk into the office and request a student be tested. The teacher has the jump through numerous hoops, teacher testing of-the child, paperwork, vision test, hearing test, paperwork, parent teacher meetings, paperwork, Student Intervention Team meetings, paperwork. In all it takes a whole school year before Evan is tested by the school psychologist, the school resource specialist (special ed. teacher) the speech therapist. Two weeks before school is out they test Evan .....and.....Evan is fine!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!   Evan has an I.Q. of 90! So he is at the "National Average" What?  You are trying to tell me this is our national average is? Wha!!!?  Evan is the average representation of the U.S.A.?? 


O.K. Now I really don't believe it. I don't believe Evan is at the National Average. I think there is some major B.S. going on somewhere. Or maybe not?  Maybe the majority of our country is really this stupid?? 


  I didn't tell you some other fun information. Evan's parents have complained about Evan's 2nd grade teacher to the district. Evan's academic problems were her fault!  They repeated this to me all year long. "She didn't like him!"  Well it turns out that since Evan doesn't have a learning disability I couldn't pass him on to fourth grade!  (He flunked every test)


   NOW WHO IS MEAN TEACHER?

To be honest I spent more time working with this kid then any other all year long. But this is the kind of crap teachers have to put up with!   Think you would like to teach?

[amycahill]

I am 100% certain I would not.  My sister-in-law is a teacher; I don't know how she manages.  I have a friend who is a teacher who recently had her first child.  She is planning on homeschooling her kids or charter school.

When a teacher makes decisions like that for her own kids, you know we are in terrible trouble.   

[Vandyyke]

I actually bonded with Evan, (Something I didn't want to do.) Every Friday I took him, plus my legally blind kid and my 2 year old (Emotionally) special ed. kid out to shoot hoops. I found out later that it was Evan's favorite time during the week. (His dad told me.) When he said this I began to get a better picture of the situation. My initial impressions of Evan's parents were that they really cared about him. NOT so, they care about him as a resource for money. Evan is going to make them lots of money with his acting career. That's why they are so angry about his academics. Evan has to work at "satisfactory level" in school before he can qualify to work in Hollywood. Why doesn't his dad take him out  and shoot hoops?

btw My legally blind kid steals the ball from Evan, what does that tell you?

[amycahill]

That is truly heartbreaking.   

[just me]

I'm a Special Ed teacher.  I take them all.  I love the challenge.  It's just my personality.
Me

[Vandyyke]

Me, I use to work at another school in my district. The RSP dept. was run by a well respected individual. In the 9 years I worked with her she always went the extra mile to get my kids tested, serviced. I never had a kid "Not Qualify". However I have suspicions as to why Evan didn't qualify. I suspect that the RSP dept at my present school just don't want him!  They are overworked as it is, They really don't have the staff to deal with him, so I think they "passed" him through. Questions, are the test subjective? Are they based on observation? If you wanted to avoid a child could you do what I described?

[just me]

The kind of testing depends on the district and the kind of parents in it.  The "higher end" the district, the more the testing is based on formal tests developed by companies to determine IQ (Woodcock Johnson etc.).  In my district, the spec. ed. teacher gets to use curriculum based tests.  Don't ask me how that is supposed to prove deficiency in intelligence or anything else.  All that proves is that the student needs help accessing that curriculum, not what their deficits are.  But the parents don't care so.....

[Vandyyke]

They mentioned Woodcock Johnson during the meeting. They said, Evan is at the National Average. My reply, "But Evan can't do anything at grade level!!!!"  He can't tie his shoes! he can't write a sentence unless I stand there and say, No Evan, you need a capital! No Evan, you need a verb! No Evan, you need a period! But they just said, "California standards are a lot higher than the rest of the country!" What? Why then are we ranked 42nd in the nation?

           So to reiterate, I spent all the extra time getting him tested for what?


I am beginning to wonder if......


  The reality of the situation has do do with the fact that most of the poor immigrants who have come to our country in order to work $5 an hour are academically at Evan's level. They just are! No matter how many times you show them how to write a sentemnce, no matter how creative your lessons are, they will perform at their DNA! 

   Rich people have better academic scores than poor people because of their basic intelligence.

   I am not saying we should refuse the poor the opportunity but the fact is Rich people are so because of a reason. They didn't just inherit their wealth, (You have to be smart enough to keep it.) They are smarter, they have what it takes to acheive. The majority of the poor who have crowded our S.C. school system don't have it! NCLB is a joke! There is no way that all these kids are going to perform at the highest levels by 2020. They just don't have the DNA. Public school today is basically filtering out the few who will rise above their parents because they have the DNA! 90% of what is going on in public schools is managing behavior! Its just keeping them on task one more day.