Controversial Topic Discussion

Would you elaborate on the meaning of WASL for me please? NCLB is meant to keep students from being held back, it teaches directly to government approved tests. In my opinion it keeps the teachers from much real teaching, as we are forced to teach things on a strict time line and I prefer finding waht students are more interested in, and teaching through those topics. For example, if a majority of my students are very interested in animals, I would love to teach through stories on animals, spelling through the words of habitats, animals, etc., and mathematics through the addition, subtraction, multiplications etc. of animals. However, NCLB takes most of that away from us while we teach exactly what the "government" deems worthy without students retaining much at all.
Elizabeth
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