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Contributed commentary by Kelly Rekart, father of a third-grader in the Clarksville-Montgomery County School System.

We just read your article about 40% of third-graders having issues with TCAP testing and progression into the fourth grade. Our son fits into that range, unfortunately.

The issue we have is that our son is a straight A student. He was recognized for improving his grades from first quarter and maintaining improvement throughout the year, until the TCAP came into play. Now all of a sudden our son can be held back because of one test.

Our son doesn’t test well and panics over the stress caused by this testing. Is that a fair assessment of our son’s capacity to learn? Our son’s school mentioned that his academics would be included in the TCAP evaluation, but it doesn’t seem it was. Now, we have been told we have options to elect by a certain time before the results are permanent.

MORE: 40% of third-graders in Clarksville-Montgomery County need new testing or tutoring

What can we as parents do about this? Sure, we can dispute the testing. But that is just a case-by-case matter, and the psychological effect this has on our son might scar him in the future. Our son loves school; he would prefer to stay there every day if he could. We just don’t understand why the TCAP has such power to punish a third-grader when in the child’s eyes they are rewarded for good grades but now may have to do third grade again.

Our son had asked us if he was bad or something while crying, and that is hard to hear from a 9-year-old. Just food for thought: Has the state thought about the emotional impact this can have on the parents, students and the teachers? How did we get to this moment where the TCAP has that much power to determine our child’s future after one tested assessment?

To make matters worse, teachers get the brunt of parents’ frustration on this, and some of those teachers try as hard as they can to teach. We as parents have been working with our son after school to help, but this kind of makes our efforts pointless.

Kelly Rekart