1. Who can teach a child science when he has been awake all night because there’s a hole in the floor of his bedroom, in a trailer, and mice come in at night and get on him to stay warm? True story.

2. I (a retired teacher) have no problem with holding students accountable for what they should learn(though with LESS testing), nor with holding teachers responsible for teaching their curriculum and teaching it well. The problems are A. figuring out how to mesh the two to award merit pay fairly, and B. Doing something about all those out-of-school factors that prevent some kids from attending to their lessons. I doubt that it can be done.