It is totally different from a normal school day and they try to keep things as normal as possible up until the day when we are actually doing the testing and then we drop into a different kind of routine.

Out of all the T-shirts that are worn to school every day, a student cannot express pride in his Southern heritage at William Blount High School.

We're on a totally different schedule on testing day.

We use the same general approach. We have to understand why he isn't coming to school and listen to what is coming between them as a person because some anger is directed at you or the school. Anger could be directed at another individual or a life situation. In order to make the student/parent relationship successful, the student must be in touch with his own pain, identity and change.

The test is not whether a school board is an integral part of a school system.

There aren't even truant officers any more. I deal with kids that don't come to school and why (they don't). It has a lot to do with family problems. That is the biggest change. The counselor must find out how to solve the problem. The truancy officer must connect with the community and understand family problems.