"Did I do something wrong, Mommy? Why am I in trouble? Are you in trouble, too?" Questions flowed nonstop from Sofia's mouth as we walked together through the school building. The hallways were nearly deserted- there was still a solid half hour before classes were to start- and her voice inquisitive voice bounced off the exposed walls. 

"No, honey, we're not in trouble. We're just going to have a little chat with Ms. Kelley and you'll be off to school as usual, that's all." 

Only, I could sense that she didn't completely believe me. She walked along shamefully, taking small, hurried steps with her head bowed between her shoulders as if she'd just been caught coloring on the walls or sneaking a cookie from the kitchen. She was often more insightful than I gave her credit for. 

We didn't have to knock on her classroom door- it was already wide open. The faint scent of citrus air freshener and an airy, playful vibe greeted me as I stepped inside the room, stepping around several groups of tiny desks to get to the teacher's desk. Ms. Kelley- a young but not particularly energetic woman- looked up from her computer at the sight of us, a small smile gracing her face. 

"Good morning, Mrs. Lancaster. I'm so glad you could make it. Please sit down- and you, too, Sofia." She gestured to two colorfully printed chairs beside her desk, standing up to shake my hand before I took my seat. The chair was just large enough for me to squeeze into without much discomfort- it clearly wasn't made for someone my size. 

"Good morning," I managed a strained smile. I wasn't going to waste time with formalities- I needed to know how dire the situation was. 

"What was her score?" I asked. "Please, just tell it as it is." 

There was still time before the actual Benchmark. Time for me to see about getting Sofia some help, if I could find out what she needed. 

"That's the thing, Mrs. Lancaster. The issue isn't with her grade..." Ms. Kelley trailed off, fiddling with her long fingernails as she fished for the right words. "In fact, she scored 100%. Yes, a perfect score. She's one of less than a hundred second graders to ever accomplish that. If she manages to do it again on the real Benchmark in May, and even if not, there probably won't be any need for her to return to this school next year. She could easily get into one of the High Benchmark academies- New York, Washington, London, Dubai, Shanghai, whichever one she wanted. I'd tell people she was in my class for the rest of my career."

A High Benchmark academy. One of the ten best schools in the world. I couldn't believe the irony of it all. I'd sent her in blindly to take the test without even knowing what it meant for her future, and she'd scored higher than all her sleep-deprived, over-competitive classmates. If this wasn't the ultimate triumph of a child's innocent dedication, I didn't know what was. But a perfect score was good news, and good news wasn't urgent. Good news didn't warrant a parent-teacher conference. 

"That wonderful, but...what's the problem?" 

"The Benchmark isn't like the SAT's of our day," Ms. Kelley explained. "Your score isn't just one number. It's based on so much more than the number of questions you get right or wrong- that's why it has to be graded by hand. A computer could never do it." 

"There's actually a second component to a child's Benchmark in addition to their percentage score out of 100. We call it the Process Quotient. We don't normally share it with families because it's usually just a couple of points away from the test score and doesn't really give them any additional information. But Sofia's case is...unique. She's the first one of her kind in Benchmark history, if I've checked my records correctly. Even with a perfect Benchmark, her Process Quotient is a 9. Out of 100."