Judy,
Again, I think you misunderstand my earlier reply. I am not doubting there is a problem in our schools. What I am doubting is your claim that schools are not reporting accurately. In essence you are calling the CSEA a bunch of liars. According to the CSEA the graduation rates are statistically higher than the previous two Clinton administrations. Perhaphs I am being a tad paranoid thinking this is a Bush bashing attempt by your first post on this matter. I do agree with your opinion it is up to parents and school boards but I would like to expound upon that and add I think the majority of the burden lies upon the parents.
I go over every single pice of paper my daughter writes on every single night. I do this because I want her to understand what she is learning and to have her not become a fact regurgitating test taker. These placency tests are ridiculous and a horrible way to judge the developmental growth of children in my humble opinion. Teachers are worried more about placement tests than actually teaching the children.
The same can be said for title abstractors. When my father first taught me, I went to one of the oldest counties with the oldest methods and learned to pull grantor grantee indexes and write my chains on a legal pad and it took me forever. Nowadays, 20 year olds are thrown into a counthouse and told to fill in the blanks after 2 days training and we are insuring on the information they provide. Just because someone can do a thing doesn't mean they understand a thing. My father's best advice to me was, "when you think you know everything about examining/abstracting title, you haven't learned a thing, so just quit."
These statistics that everyone spews out, myself included, are missing the key factors I believe. My question is did the child actually learn something. We have so many book smart kids but absolutely stupid when it comes to common sense and logic.
Too much time is spent on studies and commissions and organizations, when probably half the home owners on this website are guilty of saying no to our last levy. We found some way to convince ourselves that the school doesn't need money, and they can make due with what they have. Gee, that sounds alot like some of our clients when we propose a rate hike on our fees.
If we want to make a difference, pay our teachers more, and get rid of these ridiculous tests and get back to teaching our kids how to actually learn something.
Sorry all for the ramblings, my neighborhood had a neighborhood garage sale today and I'm loopy from the sun. =) Just a little food for thought and my humble opinions. =)

George