So they knew that was the most important thing to me. Today, most elementary principals can name the one or two children in their school who, at the end of first grade, do not read at grade level. That takes care of special ed, because those children are not being put into special ed any more. Testing all the children is a policy with consequences, too. We test as many children as possible, and principals who have high exemptions know that it will be discussed in their evaluations.
Dropouts are also part of the evaluation of the high school and middle school principals.
They just float out of school. We have millions of them in our society, on our streets, in our penal institutions, and on our welfare rolls because they haven't acquired a high school education. In order for the people in the system to know that you're serious about the policies, there have to be consequences. The people in the system have to know the lengths and the depths to which you're willing to go to get those results. For example, when our lowest performing high school didn't turn around after four years and getting a new principal, I reconstituted the school.