Bright 2nd grader & school truancy / part-time home-school?

Penny Gaines wrote

The class is not being given spelling this year. For some subjects - such
as geography and health, the class is taught together. For numeracy
and literacy (or rather maths and English), the class is split into
four groups, each with about 5 kids in it. Some of the time the class
works together, some of the time each group works at its own level.
Sometimes dd's group goes to the library to work on its own, but then as
I said before, the library is in the next room.

For maths, each child has their own workbook, at the appropriate level for
the child. In English, I think she gets the same worksheets, but is
expected to write more then some of the other kids.

Wow -- is ability grouping common in the UK? If I understand
correctly, it has been all but wiped out of public schools in the U.S.
It sounds like wonderful common sense to me.

Michelle J. Haines wrote:

In article , says...

Weeeelllllll, yes it's a national idiocy, but he's
jumped on the bandwagon and has the influence to help it
spread. At the very least, he certainly hasn't stood in
its way! And he supported a lot of "reforms" in that
direction in Texas.

Which makes him more or less like most of the other politicians in
the country.


Oh, this certainly isn't a partisan issue. As
far as I can tell, lots of politicians on both sides
of the aisle are afflicted with this particular malady.


I'm a lot less mad at him these days (since he exempted homeschoolers
from a lot of the No Child Left Behind stuff) than I am at the
Democratic candidates in Wyoming last session who tried who change
all our homeschooling laws to require portfolios and mandatory
testing and and criminal penalties if you're kids aren't progressing
fast enough, etc.


Eh, I'm feeling cranky today--not feeling like
giving *any* of 'em any slack ;-)

Best wishes,
Ericka

Nevermind wrote:


Wow -- is ability grouping common in the UK? If I understand
correctly, it has been all but wiped out of public schools in the U.S.
It sounds like wonderful common sense to me.


It sure isn't wiped out in the public schools
here. In my sons' school they ability group for math
and reading in every grade past kindergarten (except
it seems that they don't in the center based GT program,
which I suppose makes sense). They have as many groups
as they have teachers for that grade. So, this year
there are something like six first grade teachers, so
they have seven reading groups (each teacher has one,
plus there's a reading specialist) and six math groups.
The groups are relatively fluid, so children who need
to move up or down accordingly. Seems to work like a
charm.

Best wishes,
Ericka

"Ericka Kammerer" wrote
Vicki wrote:

Today we received a warning letter for truancy for our 2nd grader. The
principal said she was concerned about dd's absences. I am not
concerned
about dd's absences--she is bright, she knows the material [she's missed
five days this month, but received 100 on her test for materials
covered.]
I don't think the teacher is concerned. But the principal said dd is
only
allowed 5 excused absences per semester.


This is similar to the situation in our school district.
You can thank the "No Child Left Behind" law for this. A lot of
flexibility has been removed from the local level.

Hello Ericka--
Do you know... does this mean that to get this law changed for our state we
would have to work at the national level?

snip

We had planned to talk at school conferences about keeping dd home one
day
per week, or bi-weekly, to enhance her education. But from what I've
read
about truancy laws tonight, this doesn't seem to be allowable. Has
anyone
done this or know if it is doable?

I suspect this would not go over well. I would think
it would be *highly* disruptive to the teacher and the rest
of the class. I would either homeschool full time, leave things
as they are, or look for enrichment through the school
(GT programs, etc.). You'd be asking a *lot* of the teacher.
He or she would have to figure out how to make sure your
child suffered no ill effects from missing up to 20 percent
of the class! That would mean no quizzes/tests or other
assessments on that day, no special activities, etc. I
would think that would be pretty unreasonable to request.

I don't think dd would suffer from missing 20% of class (but I'd been
leaning more towards 10%). I thought taking dd out would be *easiest* for
the teacher. Shows how much I know! I hadn't expected teacher would do
anything to "make up" work for dd. The point was to give the class time to
catch up without dd sitting there spinning her wheels. Reading people's
objections, it seems I've misjudged how much work a teacher has to do when a
child misses. This must have to do with record-keeping and evaluation, not
with actual teaching. I don't care what marks dd receives at this point,
but I suppose the school cares, and must record them.

I don't expect much from the school in terms of education--they are passing
time. I hadn't articulated this, but as long as dd was having fun with her
friends, I thought we could bide our time and she would (eventually) get an
education at school. This part-time home school idea was so that she could
get *some* education until the public school kicked in. And stating it,
that's probably pretty stupid on my part: I should ask that they teach dd
*something* in the time she is there.

We don't have a separate program for kids who excel academically. They've
pulled four kids in dd's grade into one class and have them do some
different activities, but this is limited, and has been new ground here.
Funny as it may sound, I'd prefer dd not be pulled out for a lot of
"specials" away from her class, prefer she not be singled out. I'd prefer
that she be taught within the classroom. Yeah, I know. I've been told that
a really good teacher can teach to a lot of different levels within one
classroom and that everyone will benefit. I think dd's teacher is good...
but that kind of teaching doesn't seem to happen here.

I do need to ask at teacher conferences that teacher actually teach my
child, and ask how she will measure that. If it will be less work for her
to actually teach dd, it would be easier for me, and better for dd. I just
don't see it happening in-class, so all the trouble of having her pulled out
of class are still there, and then some. Oh well. Their record-keeping
would be easier. And I'd be being reasonable. Joy ;-)

Thanks for your thoughts. They're helping me make a plan.
V

"Cathy Kearns" wrote
"Beth" wrote in message
Ericka Kammerer wrote in message
We had planned to talk at school conferences about keeping dd home
one
day
per week, or bi-weekly, to enhance her education. But from what
I've
read
about truancy laws tonight, this doesn't seem to be allowable. Has
anyone
done this or know if it is doable?

In regards to the part-time homeschooling issue. I see a lot of
responses like this, basically saying it's all or nothing, so just
forget about part-time homeschooling. That's not true, though it is
dependent on how supportive your school is. I'm not acquainted with
anyone who's done it as one or two days of week of homeschooling, but
I know more than one person who has, at around that age, sent their
child to school for half the day and homeschooled the other half.
Generally, they've been pleased with the arrangement. If you are
interested in part-time homeschooling, I strongly recommend you bring
up with your child's teacher and see what she is willing to do to
accomodate you. If you can reach an agreement with her, it's likely
the two of you can convince the administration to go along.

I think Beth has a great point. If your second grade has a scheduled
time everyday you could pick a subject and always pull out during
that subject. That way the teacher doesn't have to worry about
your child missing tests or ensuring she makes up work.

Another option you might consider is a school that encourages
independent study. Montessori schools fall into this catagory,
I know there is a small private school near here that goes year
round, but the kids are only required to attend a certain number
of days, but they can pick their own holidays and vacation days.
This would allow you to pick the days your child attends, and
you could pull out at will.

Since you are already donating time and money to your school
it's apparent you have the time and money to go toward a
private school. The biggest disadvantage of public schools
is the rules are made by those who hold the purse strings. If
you have no money you have to hope the local schools are good
enough. But the idea of public schooling is how to best school
everyone, as a whole, not everyone individually.

Thanks to Beth and Cathy for not dismissing the idea of pt homeschool
completely :-). I hadn't thought it was such a bad idea! Oh well. I don't
think it's going to fly in the face of these truancy rules.

The Montesorri school sounds great. Education is important to us, but
private school is beyond our means, even with scholarships. When my younger
two start school I'll go back to work ft, but even so... by then dd will be
established in school and we won't want to pull her, and also we'd have
three in school--that would be over $24K per year tuition. It's just not a
possibility for us. So we have to support the school we're in. We are
investigating a move to another school district, but I'm finding a
correlation between quality of school (if you measure by high test scores
and low suspension rates) and home prices. Imagine that. I think I'll go
buy a lottery ticket.

"Nikki" wrote in message
...
H Schinske wrote:
Sue ) wrote:

Well imo, you are essentially telling your daughter that rules don't
matter, school doesn't matter and that she can stay home at any
whim. What is she going to do in the real adult world when she has a
job? Stay home because she feels like it.

And what are you telling your child when you say that school is
important to stay in even when you are not learning anything? I think
that is a message that is being put across to way too many bright
kids, and one reason why so many people don't have the guts to leave
dead-end jobs or work to make their lives more interesting.

--Helen

I don't think the part time homeschooling thing would work so great. I do
think kids can miss school here and there, for family days, a museum trip,
etc. and not suffer any negative consequences. I even got some completely
freebee days where once a year or so I was allowed to stay home just
because
I couldn't possibly deal with school that day! Didn't hurt me a bit. I
was
top of my class, never take a sick day at work, wildly successful at life
;-), lol. I guess I think an occasional miss helps kids learn balance as
well. Sometimes things *are* more important then school or your job.
Also,
with a job, we get vacation days so we can miss for whatever reason we
want
to.
Nikki
Mama to Hunter (4) and Luke (2)

My parents took us out of school for two weeks every winter, right after
xmas holidays. We'd drive down to Mexico and stay 4 weeks. This was our
family vacation and our xmas present. We missed hearing about what everyone
got for xmas, we reconnected with family, got away from the pressure of
teenage groups--helped us keep balanced. And my father got sun, which
reduced his seasonal depression (even tho we didn't know what that was
then,) and this made our winter with him bearable. I think it's hard to
judge accurately what is best for another family. Under the laws now, I
think we'd all have been truants and my parents would have been served
notice. Yee haw. Long live the totalitarian state.

"dragonlady" wrote in message
...
In article ,
"Denise" wrote:

"Brandy Kurtz" wrote in

I have faced truancy problems with my 7 year old, but due to medical
problems. In our district the children are allowed 20 days per 180
year of school. Anything over that requires a doctors note. Just
because your dd is so much smarter than all the rest of the kids and
you have financial influences in the school, they still can't bend the
rules. It is a fact that her teacher will have to spend extra time and
effort with your child to get the missed work done, which will take
time away from the children that need her guidance. Since you think
school is such a waste of time for her then you should just
home-school, and let her socialize after school hours.

Brandy


wow... talk about putting words in someone else's mouth. I must have
missed
the post where the OP said all that.


While I might not have phrased it exactly the way Brandy did, I
certainly wondered why the OP felt it necessary to point out her
family's financial contributions.

I did understand why she was pointing out that her daughter wasn't
suffering academically -- that is, imo, relevant to the concerns about
missed classes. The fact that the family funded things in the community
didn't seem to be relevant.

OP here.
Sorry, I was not trying to say we are wealthy (we aren't, too bad) or that
we deserve special treatment due to financial contributions. Someone said
the truancy note was all about the school getting money--I thought they
meant money as in fines from us, not money as in school funding. I was
trying to say, "but hey, that's shortsighted--they don't have to fine us,
we're giving them money, we're helping them financially... we're invested.
We support them. They don't have to threaten us to get us to do this." My
comment was *not* relevant to state school funding. I'm not sure how they
get those funds here, and will have to find out.

But we are involved parents, we volunteer in and support the school in a
myriad of ways. I guess that's the emotional level where the truancy note
hit me--they are saying they are concerned my dd is not in school, like I am
not making the best decisions for her, like she hasn't really been sick when
I've called and told them this, like I don't have her best interests at
heart, like I don't care about education both in general and specifically
for dd. THere is an emotional component to this that is just tremendous.
I'm surprised by how visceral this is. This law, 5 parental excused
absenses and you're truant, is not fair, and it's invasive. It's not fair
to me, involved, middle class parent, with a bright kid who isn't missing
anything at school. It's not fair to ANY parent to require a doctor's
excuse for an absence for a flu (esp for those parents who lack health
insurance.) And it is invasive--it is government, through the school,
invading on my rights to parent as I see fit. Oh, go vomit in the schools.
I think the school should be allowed to use some *discretion* in deciding
truancy. But if this is a national law that they have to follow... well,
forget about local control. Go vomit on the whitehouse. Let's send all of
our kids with the flu to Washington. Require them to sit with our senators
and legislators until they are feeling better. Oops, they may never be home
once they get that education. Egads.

"dejablues" wrote in message
...

"Vicki" wrote in message
news
Today we received a warning letter for truancy for our 2nd grader. The
principal said she was concerned about dd's absences. I am not
concerned
about dd's absences--she is bright, she knows the material [she's missed
five days this month, but received 100 on her test for materials
covered.]
I don't think the teacher is concerned. But the principal said dd is
only
allowed 5 excused absences per semester.

I'm not happy about the possibility of legal sanctions for keeping dd
home
(she was sick this month, but I wouldn't hesitate to take her out of
school
for other things we feel are important.)

You are teaching your daughter that it is OK to skip out on things that
she
*has* to do in order to do things she (or you ) *wants* to do.

Why does she *have* to go sit in a class when she knows the material? Yes,
we teach her it is OK, more than OK, to meet family responsibilities. To do
things that we feel are important. These are things we want to do. Yes.
They are wants. Why are our wishes considered so trivial? I think that
discovering and understanding what we want, what we desire, is perhaps the
most important thing we do. I want to teach dd and ds's to discover their
desires and to learn how to achieve them. What we want is important. My
SIL has breast cancer in her liver. My dd knows that we want to see her.
She knows that it is OK that we go see her. OK that she miss class. OK
that husband take off work. It is OK to do what is important for our
family. I would not teach her that she should do what society tells her she
HAS to do when it makes no sense for her or her family. You live with your
choices, but you do what you feel is important to do, yes. THis is what I
hope to teach my children. This exactly. Thanks for helping me clarify
that.

Can they prosecute us for truancy
when dd is top of her class? I don't see the harm to anyone in dd not
going. And she *will* miss more school at Thanksgiving (important
family
time.)

There might be repercussions from other kids who think that your DD is
getting "special treatment" in being allowed to miss days of school to go
to
museums, trips, etc., something that not everyone else gets to do.

Why would they think it was "special treatment" to miss school? Maybe they
are already jealous of her b/c she missed school with the flu. I don't
think we'd advertise her other activities to her classmates, unless the
teacher required this. But underlying your comment, the kids might bully
her into conforming? Mmmm. I hadn't considered that.

We had planned to talk at school conferences about keeping dd home one
day
per week, or bi-weekly, to enhance her education. But from what I've
read
about truancy laws tonight, this doesn't seem to be allowable. Has
anyone
done this or know if it is doable?

dd does not want to homeschool full-time--she likes seeing her friends
at
school and we think this is good for her. We have discussed getting
appropriate challenge in her classroom--the teacher has been helpful,
but
there is only so much she can do. We chose not to skip dd to the next
grade
as she is already the youngest in her class.

There there schools that still skip children? I though this was pretty
much
abandoned by now. I skipped first grade (parents strongly pushed for it) ,
and while there were benefits, there were also significant drawbacks for
me
throughout my school career.

Well, they do allow this. But our school encourages parents to hold their
kids back a year instead. This is why our daughter is the youngest in her
class. They asked if I was sure I wanted to start her in K that year (Sept
cutoff, June birthday) but she was already reading and it seemed crazy to
hold her back just so she could garner some dubious benefit by being the
oldest in her class. But really, getting to your point, their policy
essentially makes it just the same as if I skipped the girl. Many kids in
her class are over a year older than her b/c they started late. Starting on
time is skipping a grade here. And this is why I didn't put her in 1st
grade, which would put her as two years or more older than most of her
classmates.

Have others faced this truancy problem? How do you approach it? If
this
is
a law (5 days/semester,) does the principal have much leeway in
enforcing
it? If not, then who do we talk with? The DA? Is it possible to
homeschool part-time (the days dd misses) and avoid a truancy
enforcement?
Could we test out of second grade and attendance be optional?

dh is calling the principal next week, and we will meet with dd's
teacher
in
three weeks. I'd like to have a sense of our options before we go so we
do
what's right by dd and cause the least distress to her teacher and
principal
(who are quite nice.)

I bet they cringe when they see YOU coming!

On what would you base that wager?

Perhaps they do cringe. THis parent who loves her dd and has such low
expectations of the school's performance. I think I'm reformed now though.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you.
Vicki

"Jenrose" wrote in message
s.com...

"Ericka Kammerer" wrote in message
...
Jenrose wrote:


But you have a job where the nature of the job makes
that possible. I have one of those too, and it's a really
nice way to go. But there *are* jobs where that isn't
possible. The way most classrooms are organized, the job
of learning/teaching isn't one that can be done in a situation
where the child is missing 20+ percent of school. Is the
teacher *really* supposed to sit down each week and plan
*everything* to accommodate the fact that a particular child
is going to regularly miss a day that week?

No. However....

The teacher
must not schedule anything that would affect her grades that
day? And, of course, it would be a shame to schedule anything
particularly interesting or special that day, since this is
a child who most needs those sorts of enriching activities.
And what about group work? Will this child be excused from
all group work so that her group won't be at a disadvantage
by her absence? Or will all group work have to be scheduled
around her schedule? And what about specials (music, PE, art,
computer, etc.)? If the day she's skipping has one or more
of those, then she's missing *all* of that activity, so what
should happen with those grades? Should she be given a way
to make those up?

In an environment which focuses on education (rather than grades) and
provides enough group work, special activities, enrichment, etc., there
will
be both the flexibility for a child to miss a class (without it affecting
non-existing grades) and enough learning going on that maybe the parents
don't feel they *need* to pull the child out to keep her learning.

Now, one could argue that classes should be designed
differently so that they had the flexibility to deal with
this sort of thing. However, that would pretty much mean
that they'd have to go to a sef-paced, self-directed sort
of class. This would be a huge change, would probably
require a significantly lower teacher:student ratio, and
would wreak havoc with all the "accountability" testing
and whatnot that has been implemented by our elected
officials over the last several years.


My daughter's classes are not self-paced, per se, nor self-directed. And
the
teacher/student ratio varies from 24:1 to 28:1, although we have enough
parent volunteers that there are usually other adults around. Honestly,
when
you get a bunch of kids with different ability levels together, ditch the
whole "letter grade" system, encourage group learning environments and
make
the curriculum one which allows children to do assignments to their
ability
rather than to one "objective" standard, then yes, you can accomplish an
education with the same basic resources any public school should have. Our
kids have to take the testing just like everyone else, and they do well on
it. The *only* "problem" our school had on the national testing
was...attendance. That is, enough parents opted out of the generalized
testing that it was a black mark...the only black mark. Funny, the kids
are
still learning.

But the teachers give the assignments, and the general direction, but they
do tailor their expectations to each kid. Removing the tyranny of graded
assignments and placing instead actual *feedback* to kids and
encouragement
to learn and develop rather than 'get better grades' and suddenly you get
a
group of engaged kids who like helping each other out, like learning, and
who don't have to be ability grouped, ostracized or otherwise isolated for
being brighter than average OR slower than average.


My daughter's school succeeded in making going to school "the
reward"...
so
that they don't HAVE to punish people outrageously for missing. Most
people
just don't want to miss!


I think most schools can be accommodating to some
degree. Even if it's that once-in-a-lifetime opportunity
to spend two weeks on safari, they'll usually work to
concoct some sort of project the child can do resulting
from the trip itself, and that plus a little makeup work
will eliminate the problem. But handling a situation
where the child is regularly missing as much school as
the OP proposed is a really different situation, in my
opinion at least.

My opinion is that a bright kid whose parents feel the kid needs to be out
of school once a week to get a decent education is a symptom of a school
that is failing to provide an adequate education. The irony is that
getting
kids engaged in learning just does not have to be all that hard.

School does not have to be boring. It does not have to be "paced to the
slowest learner in the class". It does not have to be demoralizing for
kids
who take longer to learn. It does not have to be centered on getting
grades--it should be centered on learning! I got great grades all the way
through high school--it taught me to cram for tests but little else. I'm
great at cramming for tests, btw... but have lousy retention of what I
learn. My daughter on the other hand tends to really internalize what she
learns, has great study habits, etc. Just this year, in 5th grade, she
gets
points on her assignments for the first time. And she is so into the extra
credit for it's own sake that she often comes back with a zillion extra
points on her paper and it's irrelevant to her. She's so not about the
numbers.

To me, a bored bright child is as scary or scarier than a child who is
struggling to learn. Both are fully capable of acting out in frustration
and
disrupting the environment for other kids. Why not use curriculums that
actually keep both kids from getting too frustrated? Curriculums that keep
them learning?

Jenrose

Thank you so much for your posts. Your school situation sounds ideal. You
are hitting on exactly the issues we have. It is not that we want more
homework for our child, or want her pulled from her classroom, or pulled out
of social time for more academics... we want her to learn how to meet
challenges, how to learn, how to be persistent when she DOESN'T know the
answer. She's not learning this at school, b/c she usually knows the
answer. The worksheets she brings home are fodder for our pre-schooler,
not a challenge for our 2nd grader... What state are you in?
Vicki

"Ericka Kammerer" wrote in message
...
Jenrose wrote:



Um, she *is* in a public school.


Then I would prepare to see the school's flexibility
whittled away, little by little. (Sorry to be cynical, but
I'm afraid I'm not all that optimistic on this front.) I
think our public school system is quite good and I am happy
with the education my children are getting there, but I
keep seeing more and more flexibility taken away by both
state and national initiatives.


Actually, the school itself is getting whittled away. We lost a teacher this
year due to funding cuts, so we're running 5 grades with 4 teachers plus an
assistant for math hired by the PTA directly through draconian fundraising.
That is, they lined parents up at the plasma center and had them donate
plasma to raise money for the schools. Voluntarily of course, but I'm not
kidding when I say that parents actually pay for this school in blood...

But a nearby charter school is doing okay, with a similar concept and fewer
"hurdles" to jump... a lot of kids who would have been at our school go
there now because the parents are tired of the funding crisis. Why is ours
in funding crisis and theirs not? Hard to say, but the different
requirements for charter vs. regular schools might be one factor.


snip
This leaves kindergarteners with eight hours of homework and caffeine
jitters at the age of five, carried to the logical conclusion. I don't
want
to even think about preschool.

I hyperbolize, but you get the point.


Absolutely. This is a very common attitude and getting
more and more common.

Makes me crazy and it won't happen to my kids, period.


It was very important for us to find a program that let kids be kids
without
the heavy homework load. She has gone from no homework in kindergarten
to
not quite an hour in 5th grade on a "heavy" night, and never not been
able
to get her homework done working no more than 10 min x grade level every
night. Thus, with reasonable, age-appropriate expectations (and how many
emotionally average academically gifted kids get loaded with age
inappropriate amounts of work when their "enrichments" pile on top of a
normal workload....) she's actually developed study skills which seem
rare
in kids that bright.


I agree with you 100 percent. I just think that public
schools like this are going to get more and more rare in the
current legislative environment.


But the point is that *all* these programs operate with the same budgets
the
neighborhood schools get, per pupil.


This is a red herring in most cases. The big player
in funding for public schools is often how many "special"
cases the school has to deal with (e.g., language barriers,
severe learning disabilities, etc.). Schools that don't
have to deal with these issues effectively have much more
money to spend on the population at large.

There is a special needs program and ESL program in the building, not
affiliated with our school, but affiliated with the building as a whole. And
special needs programs do get extra funding, though never enough.


There are some who argue that this kind of program "saps" the
neighborhood
schools of the brightest kids. In my experience, neighborhood schools
with a
"standard" normal curriculum rarely make enough use of the brightest
kids to
justify keeping them.


Except that the brightest kids drive up the test scores,
and with test scores becoming so all-fired important, lowered
test scores have very real impacts on all the students in a
school. There's also a secondary effect--the brightest kids
generally bring more affluent and more involved *parents* to
the table, which translates into more money for the school
(through the PTA) and all sorts of other advantages.


We've got some very well off families at the school, but our area is
INCREDIBLY depressed right now, economically (Oregon is still in a
recession, whatever's going on elsewhere) and the labor market is only just
now starting to ease a little. We're talking a lot of previously well-paid
people out of work. That's part of our "flight" problem...people are leaving
for Portland to get work, which is ironic, actually. We have a lot of low
income families in the school. But yes, our parents are more involved. But
local schools CAN get that kind of involvement if they structure things in
such a way as to encourage it.

What delights me about
this program in particular is that it manages to provide an enriched
learning environment for the same money to ALL kids at all ability
levels.
Isn't that how it *should* work? Shouldn't people be looking at taking
this
model out to the neighborhood schools?


Absolutely. Programs that are working well should
be looked at and their ideas co-opted wherever possible.
However, I would be cautious about the money issue. If
your school is really serving the full gamut of abilities
on the same dollar, that's wonderful. Odds are, however,
that it's not, nor is it likely coping with as high a
percentage of the more difficult to educate children
(extreme poverty, etc.). That's not to say that other
schools shouldn't be taking a page from your school's book.
From many of the things you've said, it sounds like there
are a bunch of very valuable things that likely *would*
help with no downside whatsoever. I'm just suggesting that
sometimes the problem is a little more complicated than
it first appears--and all these relatively recent
legislative attempts towards accountability through
testing and other "objective" standards are complicating
the situation significantly. (I'm not against
accountability per se, but I have a lot of heartburn
with the way it's often implemented.)

Yep. We are faced with the twit-head accounting too... our school is listed
on the "bad" list for *one* issue--that our well-educated and involved
parents tend to be very political and flat out refuse to allow their kids to
do the testing. So we get less than 90% testing compliance and therefore
dinged. It's kind of refreshing, actually. That is NOT part of our attrition
problem. The economy and budget cuts are.

Jenrose