The school year is over and as teachers we watch students whom we worked with for over 4 years go off throughout the nation to the post-secondary lives of their choice. Some go to colleges while others opt to go to technical schools. Some decide to join the work force and others choose to join the military. Like I have done for the past 28 years I hope I did the best I could with what I had from a community I adopted.

This is also the time of year when, as teachers, we wait for the results of multiple test scores from state and federal organizations who decided they would be the judge of how well we educate our students. They do not care about how well individual students due after they leave high school. They are more concerned with how well our students due on what they believe they should know. The problem is the test-givers are telling the educators of schools across the country what to teach, how to teach, and when to teach disciplines they believe is important. The concept of having local communities decide what is important is being taken over by NCLB and people who tell us they are the deciders who know better about how to educate our children.

If I sound bitter about this; I am. I know where my students come from and I know what the families of my students consider important. I know their hopes and dreams of entire families because over the years I had many sisters and brothers. In fact, I am now starting to teach the children of my ex-students.

By having strangers decide what is good for my students also eliminates the concepts of having us teach new and exciting state-of-the-art technologies that will become a part of the future of all my students. For example nano-technology is an exciting new technology being studied in many of our universities. When I brought this subject to the people of my state that are responsible for the multiple tests they told me I should not teach something that will not be given on the state's test. I assume what they are saying is I should wait teaching something new until the test makers decide it is important enough to teach. The discipline of bio-technology should also be stressed in our schools but is not because it would take time away from teaching to a test.

The assault on local control of our schools is also being attacked on another front. A few years ago many schools subscribed to a program called, "VHS"; 'Virtual High School'. This Internet program allowed students to take courses on-line that were not offered at their high school. Originally I did not understand this program but after watching my students take a variety of interests that could never be taught locally I decided the system was functional even though many of the courses were not well set up and proved to be a waste of time.

This series of courses then evolved into a program called, "VLACS"; 'Learning virtual academy charter school'. This is still an on-line system but students from any school in New Hampshire can enroll in a course that is offered at their high school. What this means is the curriculum that has been approved by the local community and their decision of who will teach this curriculum is lost. Since this is a state chartered high school I assume most if not all of the curriculum will be mirrored by the state tests. In other words, our students will be taught to the test.

I wonder what would happen if the locally approved curriculum is more stringent than the on-line course. Will students look for an easy way out in order to achieve their degree? After they complete the on-line course these same students will be able to receive the local community's diploma even though they did not succeed in the courses being offered by that school.

Another problem I have with "VLACS" is they are not only offering subjective courses like English and History but they are also offering science courses that need to have a laboratory experience associated with them if they have any chance to succeed. In fact, they are now offering Advanced Placement Biology that the College Board demands have laboratory experiences as part of its curriculum. Last year I went through an audit through the College Board in order to have my course approved to be called "AP". I wonder if VLACS AP courses are also approved because I do not understand how an on-line course could have any level of laboratory experiences.

The school year is over and as teachers we watch students whom we worked with for over 4 years go off throughout the nation to the post-secondary lives of their choice. This summer I will be taking courses at the local university in nano-technology in the knowledge this subject will never be tested by the NCLB. It will only help my students survive in a very technical world. I also wonder if VLACS will offer a course in nano-technology. I think this would be a bit too small for them.