Baltimore Times - Article - local news: "Although school officials have sought to assure parents that teachers will be the last to be laid-off (but made no promises) more and more teachers are taking on chores normally reserved for support staff (who have already been pink-slipped). Consequently, less time is spent on lesson preparation%u2026and there seems to be no end in sight.

In the midst of all this turmoil, a sweeping federal education mandate, the No Child Left Behind Act (of 2002) is aimed at improving public education and stressing accountability at all levels of public education.

An analysis published by The Education Trust in December 2003, %u201CTelling the Whole Truth (or not) About High School Graduation,%u201D paints a much different picture of public education: %u201CWhen we look at the academic pipeline nationally, we see that four years after starting high school, almost one million students had not graduated.%u201D

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