So true. I did my student teaching at the "second worst" elementary school in Lansing, Michigan. There was a stabbing at a park across the street. One of my 4th grader's Mom was shot and killed at a drive-by shooting in the neighborhood, Also, I broke up several fights were students were actually trying to maim or destroy the other combatant. These were students that were 5th grade or less!

The low-income, "at-risk" population was near ninety percent at my school. I also thought that I, a privileged college student from the best public schooling in the state of Michigan, would be able to make a difference with my inventiveness and work-ethic.

Boy, was I wrong. My Collaborating Teacher, the wonderful woman that guided me through my student teaching, taught me her techniques and coping strategies. She was a divorcee who had committed her life to teaching at this elementary school. After I finished my student teaching and was looking for jobs, her last piece of advice to me was,"Please do me a favor Jeff, don't contact me next school year and tell me you teach at a school like mine. Teach somewhere that won't take all of you. You want a family and respect. Please teach at a nice school."

I now teach at a suburban middle school in Michigan that has a free and reduced lunch rate of near 80 percent. It's not the "lowest performing", more the lower end of middle of a nice county. We have some problems, but chasing after better test scores is doing nothing to make our problems easier to solve.