This has been so frustrating to me, I don't even know HOW to handle it. My daughter is a third grader at one of the elementary schools here in town. I know she's enthusiastic about learning and I know she's smart, but the work just seems to be getting the better of her. Last year she had nearly all As the entire year. This year, though I know her teacher is a little more strict and the workload is heavier, she's getting just mediocre grades. She's in title one, in before school tutoring, and I help here at home whenever she doesn't understand something, and yet she's still having so many problems keeping up with how fast new things are being introduced and remembering all these new ideas. What this seems to come down to, from my point of view, is the curriculum. Her teacher told us at the beginning of the year that the third grade curriculum (and probably many other grade's curriculums) is for the most part created to get STAR test scores up. Am I the only one that thinks there's something wrong with this? It bothers me to think that my daughter is being molded to be a test score. I have seen an incredible lack of anything creative coming out of her class, which honestly disturbs me. And when my child comes home from school as stressed out about her schoolwork as I am about my own work, it makes me sick to my stomach. She's 8 years old! She should be enjoying herself and having the opportunity to be a kid, not having to think about doing well on a state-mandated test! What has happened to our school system? Do they not realize high test scores do not mean better students? Do they not know that a bad test score doesn't mean a child isn't smart? It's appalling the state and district can weigh so much on these scores.