That is a sad story Floridama.
That's one reason I'd like to see a shift to value-added assessment.
http://www.cgp.upenn.edu/ope_value.html In contrast, value-added assessment measures growth and answers the question: how much value did the school staff add to the students who live in its community? How, in effect, did they do with the hand society dealt them? If schools are to be judged fairly, it is important to understand this significant difference...Because value-added accounts for socioeconomic and demographic differences, its outcome measures reveal the extent to which educators have succeeded in helping their students move forward, regardless of where they started.
