I feel your pain. My county in Georgia is the #1 agriculture county in the state and we have lots of migrant workers and a good many hispanics that have settled here.
Like you I have a problem with kids dropping in and out, and having to test immediately after coming to the country. NCLB has done nothing but shackle good teachers who are trying.
I don’t mind accountability, but I do mind it when the rules get changed in the middle of the game without knowing.
Background info., first: In our county, 71% of all minority (black) births are to unwed mothers. Many are in my daughter's non-tracked classes. (60% or so for hispanics in our county, and 25% or so for caucasian).
I knew those numbers, but here is the part that troubled me. The High School nurse was discussing teen pregnancies among black girls. She noted one senior girl who said the reason she really, really, really wanted to get pregnant was so that her mother would not lose her house after she graduated. (As in -welfare was paying for the house until the dependents were grown and she is the youngest child - she wanted to add another dependant so that they could keep their house).
So many of the state-dependent/welfare students do not have any hope (in their own minds) and truly believe they will have the same lives as their moms. When a student loses all hope that education will help, why even try? Why even stay in school? Just a thought. One of the rural south's many problems with education, as educrats try to educate the masses.