Tom has a bad case of conveyor belt blues; what's a Mom to do?

     In earlier posts I described life for Tom, now a fourth grade student who has done poorly on annual high stakes tests and been put into remediation.  Unfortunately, Tom is feeling the impact of a conveyor belt that has one speed.  He has not been able to catch up.  He and his Mom have met with the principal, but both are showing the strain of his circumstances.  Rather than feeling energized, excited about the future, Tom feels his world is full of limitations.  Rather than imagining possibilities, dreaming about what life holds for him, Tom just goes through the motions.
     Every few days Tom's Mom asked if she could help him with his homework or talk about how things were going with arithmetic and reading.  She began reading more at home herself, hoping to be a good model.  Tom showed little interest in extra effort.  When he felt pushed by her, he reminded her that he was already missing the afternoon "specials" and working harder than ever at school.  Tom's Mom could see that his grades on unit tests and his report card were changing very little.  Maybe Tom just wasn't ever going to get good grades.
     The end of fourth grade came and summer began.  Tom and his Mom were thankful for the break.  Tom had that familiar sinking feeling about the year end tests, but summer was finally here.  Fifth grade brought a fresh start, including afternoon "specials" for all once again.  Tom seemed to feel better about school.  His grades did not improve, but that didn't seem to trouble him.  Mom was thankful that he was pretty much back to his old self, but she worried about the first report card and where he might be headed in January.  In her mind, Tom was almost too relaxed about things.  Surely, he must see that he was not making sufficient progress?  She met with the Principal again before Thanksgiving.
     The Principal agreed that Tom seemed happy.  He also agreed that Tom needed to get more serious about grades.  They reviewed the data from the third and fourth grade year end tests.  The remediation efforts after January had shown little improvement in the trend of Tom's scores.  He was as much below grade level at the end of fourth grade as he was after third.  There was little doubt that the January assessments would put Tom back into remediation for arithmetic and reading once again.
     By the end of fifth grade the pattern and mindset were well established.  Tom's report card and year end state tests told the same story.  He was not "proficient" in math or reading.  Tom and his Mom began to verbalize what they had suspected for a year, Tom just wasn't going to do as well as some of the other kids in his grade.  Some kids have it, some don't.  Or, maybe some just catch up one year, others catch up some other year.