It's a long testing week. ... The individual teachers try to plan things that are not as stressful so the time when they are not doing tests is more relaxed in the classroom.

What a lot of people don't realize is these tests are given in preparation for the 10th-grade GQE. That's the one with the highest stakes for individual students. They have to eventually pass that to graduate.

We give the Terra Nova test so ISTEP is not the first big test they take. Terra Nova tests similar skills so they get that practice in first and second grades. Some children get stressed by it, but if the parents and teachers have the right attitude, they don't get as stressed. We try not to create an environment that would cause that.

The No Child Left Behind Act looks at math and language arts. Adding science is an Indiana initiative.

I chose my house because I could walk to all of the businesses downtown. But that doesn't mean I want to be able to wave to the pharmacist from my kitchen window.