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Interesting article--thanks for posting it.

As another poster has already said, the problem here is that high-performing students are often high-performing because of the enrichment given at home. Parents in middle to upper SES catagories expect so much from their kids that do not leave schooling only for the teachers. These are parents taking their kids to historical sites, arranging extra tutoring when needed, supervising homework and just having an atmosphere at home positive to learning. For this system to work, there has to be something in place that recognizes that a years worth of growth looks different in each kid.

In addition, I was shocked to learn that the FCATs mean little to the kids except in grades 3 and 10. That is total BS. If the test means that much to the school and teacher, it needs to mean quite a bit to the student. The FCAT's need to become somewhat of an exit exam from grade to grade. That will stop the random bubbling in right there in all but your most hard-core test haters.

Overall, I'm not opposed to the idea of merit pay, nor am I opposed to getting rid of teachers whose students consistently under perform. But there needs to be a balance between the poor and wealthy schools so that the low performing schools don't have a revolving door in the front admitting and releasing brand new teachers.

As another poster has already said, the problem here is that high-performing students are often high-performing because of the enrichment given at home.

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Nearly all academically successful students are homeschooled. It does not matter if they attend school or not. I say "nearly" because there are always a few exceptions.

The only thing a government school does is send home a curriculum for the parents to follow.

My husband worked for du Pont for many years. The scientists and engineers he worked with went home every night and made certain that their children knew their math facts by rote. Then they corrected the new-new math misunderstandings and made certain their children were well grounded the math algorithms that they learned in their mud hut, third-world, elementary schools.

These scientists and engineers bought Hooked on Phonics for their pre-schoolers, and at the first sign of academic difficulty hired tutors.

Their homework was checked for neatness, spelling and grammatical errors, and completeness.

Vacations and trips to museums were planned to reinforce topics taught in school.

These children were read to every night.

TV and video games were tightly regulated.

Books and magazines filled their homes.

Their children attended concerts, ballet, theater productions, art exhibits, and recitals of all kinds.

These children participated in theater, dance, music, and art lessons.

These children attended summer camps that specialized in their children's talents.

In essence these parents did everything I did as a homeschool parent. Who takes the credit when these well-educated children raise the standardized scores of their government school? YES! Of course! The government school!

There are two very significant differences between the children of the scientists and engineers who attended school and true homeschoolers:

First, the schooled children did not have as much time to express their creativity or pursue their own academic interests.
Second, they didn't have as much time for play to burn off calories and build strong muscles and bones, had worse school diets, and were fatter.