"While we have been trying to prepare ourselves and our students for NCLB , it has been extremely frustrating. The time and effort we have spent in preparing and choosing local assessments to fit our curriculum has been tremendous and, yet, still not effective. NCLB seems to only have added additional assessment burdens, taking away from important teaching time.

"My goal is to teach children and assess their progress as I go, determining areas of concern. It feels as though I get less and less time to actually teach my students and fewer impromptu teachable moments because of areas that need to be taught and that will be assessed.

"More and more students are coming to us with less background knowledge on various topics because of the baggage they carry from their homes and early childhood. Starting children in a preschool program when they are not ready for the school environment doesn't appear to be helping them prepare for later grades; rather, it is a hindrance to some of their learning. We see more students now than ever before who are not ready for learning.

"The frustration at knowing that we teachers are going to be held accountable for what students know (or don't know) has set in. How appropriate is that? We work hard to reach students, and mostly we succeed; however, the students who are unavailable to learn because of their various issues could determine whether or not we keep our jobs. That just doesn't seem fair."

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