"In May 2006, I had five seniors who failed their required English class. I informed them and their parents that they would have to make up this credit in summer school to graduate. To my surprise, they all graduated one week later.

"A counselor at my school had told them about an online college course that would allow them to earn one year's high school English credit in just three days. I was horrified that my local school system would use such courses, which are obviously cash cows for colleges and that undermine the classroom teacher.

"Every administrator I spoke to admitted that these courses were grossly inferior, but they won't get rid of them, even though by state regulations they don't have to accept them. Why won't they? Because these courses are their safety net against NCLB's mandated 85 percent graduation rate.

"While an 85 percent graduation rate is a good goal, we should be striving to find real, life-changing methods to achieve this, and not giving students the false notion that they will be ready for college by doing a 'magic' course.

"Students are also being taught that they can receive the same rewards in three days for which their more conscientious classmates have worked for 36 weeks. All this is being done to satisfy a statistic and just shows what local boards are doing because of the stress put on them by NCLB."

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