No Child Left Behind

Our area just reported its results for the SAT and evidently our scores were down relative to the national average. The apologists in our education system were not smart enough to understand that when you are down relative to others who took the same test, it is not exactly an excuse to say the exam was harder and longer this year than last year.

Critics have long complained that the compliance requirements for NCLB puts too much stress on state resources and educators, many of whom say they must teach to the test at the expense of other learning. This might be better accepted if the test scores they are teaching toward were actually increasing.