Child Should Read above Grade Level

Last year, in second grade, my son's reading fluency was below grade level. The school put him in a special reading class. Currently, he is receiving reading instruction in the regular third-grade classroom. He also has a tutor who says he's now reading on grade level. The school says he is a very bright little boy with a vocabulary at the sixth-grade level. Should I continue having him work with the tutor? He really likes her. -- Special Help or Not
Answer: Reading on grade level is a good thing. However, the brighter a child is, the greater the reading potential. Students with above-average intelligence are expected to read above grade level. What we're talking about is something called "reading expectancy."
There are a variety of reading-expectancy formulas that can be used to predict the level that your son should be reading on. You might ask the school to do this. We suspect that he should be reading beyond the third-grade level.
Keep the tutor, if you can afford to do so. Have her test and then focus on the areas that cause him trouble until he becomes a very proficient reader handling material above grade level.