another repuke program that has backfired

The New York Times leads with a report that in order to comply with the testing requirements of the No Child Left Behind education law, schools nationwide are ratcheting up the amount of time students spend on reading and math—to the exclusion of other courses. Because the law only requires annual tests in those two subjects, schools are ditching history, science, art, and music and concentrating on their test scores. At one school in California, some students spend five of their six class periods on math, reading, and gym, with only 55 minutes reserved for another subject; the school's lowest performers don't even get that extra class. There's a split among experts as to whether such intense focus on math and reading will eventually help underperforming students, or will, as some suggest, lead to student burnout.