Eight years later...

Post on how NCLB has changed the culture of schools:

You might argue that creating a high-stakes environment based around testing is essential for these failing schools. But that assumes that 1) these schools have been failing mainly because a lack of effort and 2) the high-stakes culture benefits the students. Both assumptions are false, but still they allow the general degredation of public schools and the educators who work in them.

Recall, by the way, that Massachusetts entered the test prep earlier; we've been doing MCAS since the graduating class of 2001, who took the exam as sophomores.