So now that more and more high schools in this area are failing to meet the unrealistic goals of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) will we see more of an uproar about this entire fiasco. Look, the kids who are not meeting the goals in these suburban districts are students that have been identified as special needs. Guess what? if you take a 10th grader who has been diagnosed as cognitively disabled (which is a nice way of saying their IQ is south of 70 and used to be labeled retarded) and give him or her a standardized test, they won't pass. They won't score proficient.

Why?

BECAUSE THEY ARE COGNITIVELY DISABLED. Why in the hell does this test define success? Hey, the world needs folks to stock shelves and do light assembly, and not every kid is going to college. Why the square peg into the circle? It's got a lot to do with our current government wanting public schools to fail so they can reinvent "for profit" education.

The business community likes to point fingers at MPS and other districts, telling them if the districts argue that these kids (and I speak only of those who are diagnosed as CD and with academic levels that are flat around 3rd or 4th grade) cannot realistically pass a state standardized test, they are giving up on these kids. Well, guess what the darn business community gave up on these kids when they sent all the decent wage factory jobs to Mexico and other third world nations. 

...It'll be interesting to see how the pressure from suburban parents plays into this equation. No one listens to poor, urban districts but the wealthy conservatives...well we shall see.