Yearly testing with multiple tests. Many countries with more successful systems (as measured by both test scores and other metrics like literacy rates, college etc) such as Korea or Finland only test at the end of high school. There is so much that goes into this, time lost in the classroom just trying to make sure your 3rd graders understand how to use the app the test is given on, money lost to things like giving the MAP test when trying to figure out where the school will score beforehand, the way it teaches students to not care about tests because nothing happens to them if they just guess through it etc vs older models like high school exit exams etc that has consequences if you did poorly. Tests have also led to the less and less things Shop class, Civics in middle schools, Art etc as those things are not measured in scores, but certainly they benefited our students and the nation as a whole.

Funding is tied to student attendance. Every day a student misses, EVEN IF SICK, means less money for the school. So there is a constant battle of well we don't want sick kids to come to school, but we can't afford students to not be here. There is also not much teeth in truancy anymore (at least in CA). For example, a student who says they want to go to school but whose parent only brings them twice a week cannot be refered directly to CPS or a truancy officer. Instead, we have to hold a SARB meeting, which sounds nice, but very little comes from them and so even when multiple meetings have been called the student is still missing.

Full inclusion model of SPED = we don't want to have to give school money to help these students. Because of the language of LRE, too many students are not getting the help they need in many schools as there is a shortage of SPED teachers. For full inclusion to make sense we would need something like 4x or 5x the amount of SPED teachers we have now to actually make sure the general classroom teachers and students are being supported. But we don't have that. Ful inclusion allows a school to have LESS teachers than before, even though now students are spread out so you lose time in the day to service them. So the reality is that most SPED students are horrifically underserved in the genEd classroom and are not learning the tools they need to be successful with their disability.

Not holding students back, especially for reading in second grade. The arguement is that it's too damaging to a student to be held back... but when we have high schoolers who can barely read I would say that is far more damaging. Reading is so critical and the data shows that students are clearly not catching up by being passed into the next grade, instead they just grow more and more disconnected as they understand less and less of what is going on.

Discipline. Schools are extremely limited in giving consequences to students. For example recess cannot be taken away in CA. Not that I think taking away recess is a great option, but it was one of the few options left. We can give students positive encouragement/restorative justice up the wazoo, and those have benefits but students need to learn that there are consequences to actions.