Veronica, you mirror some of my daily frustrations, too. This is my 29th year of teaching (I can hardly believe that) and the students do seem to be more dependent and unable to show evidence of higher level thinking. But, as you, my test scores are always higher than the state and district average. I do not teach to the test; everything I do gets them ready. That includes literature circles and tons of every imaginable kind of writing. My mantra is "explain your thinking and use supporting evidence." My new sixth graders are struggling more than usual. Thank God I have them for 2 years, because you can do a lot more with them when you loop. They are a nice group of kids, so I deal with it. I think that as a whole, many parents just baby their kids and do not give them any responsibility. Then when they are held accountable for doing some hard work on their own, the **** hits the fan. Then there are the parents who don't or can't care. That's another issue. I have to tell parents that they should take the TV out of the bedroom, turn off the IM, take away the cell phone. I work in a very diverse suburban district, with kids in 600,000 dollar homes and ones who just immigrated from Brazil or Portugal, or other S. American countries. My district has been anti- MCAS, but even now our superintendent, who is known across the country for being an expert on social and emotional learning is falling prey to the pressure because our math scores are not that great. Thankfully, next year is my last year (I'd like it to be this year, but I hate to leave the kids in the middle of a loop). I plan on getting a job where there is no homework and I have plenty of time to ride my bike. But first, I am going to take a vacation in September or October... preferably to Italy, on my bike.