And it's not hard to see why. Newspapers and news magazines across the country have documented state after state and district after district gutting or eliminating millions of dollars in funding for programs for their highest-achieving students, diverting that money into programs for low-achieving students in order to meet the mandates of the law.

"I don't think we've seen a tremendous change in our district, for which I'm grateful," said Salina School Board president Carol Brandert, who later described the situation as "fortunate."

If Brandert -- a former English teacher well-known for being a stickler for using the right word -- is using words that sound oddly passive, there's a reason.

The question of cutting programs for top students has never come up, she said.

When Kay Scheibler first started heading the gifted program at Salina Central High School, 13 states mandated programs for top students. Today, Kansas is the only state with such a mandate.

"It's mandated, so we're not going to see any major changes without some legislative action," she said.

"We're unique, one out of 50," confirmed Kansas Commissioner of Education Alexa Posny.

State law regarding those formally identified by their school as gifted closely parallels that for special education students, even using the same terminology -- gifted students have an "Individual Education Plan."

Posny said she has suggested eliminating the statutory requirements to provide for gifted students.

"I absolutely believe in providing this, but we may not need the legal requirement," she said. "And, if we do remove that requirement, we might have more flexibility -- but that could also mean the same level of funding would not be available."

Despite tight budgets in recent years, and the fact that most of the new state funding is earmarked for students who aren't yet meeting minimal standards, Salina Superintendent Rob Winter notes the district now offers more advanced placement classes than ever, as well as more fast-track classes in middle school, and that more elementary students are taking middle school classes for part of the day.

Advanced placement classes are offered to high school juniors and seniors in a variety of subjects. They are similar to honors classes but are considered college-level, and students taking them can earn college credits in those subjects while still in high school.

The cuts other states have made in providing for gifted students are "terriblyunfortunate," Winter said. "I would argue it's educational malpractice."

Why bother?

If some students still haven't mastered the "Dick and Jane" reader, why should a school worry about making sure another can read the original "Beowulf?" And, if they're really that smart, won't they learn it on their own?

"It's a dark ages mentality to think they'll be fine," Winter said.

Scheibler, along with Karen Bastin, her counterpart at Salina South High School, can give numerous reasons why top students still need attention.

Both say they've had a few students formally identified as "gifted" who eventually dropped out of high school.

"A couple of the brightest kids I've ever seen at Central didn't finish," Scheibler said.

And, in some ways, they say reasons those students give for dropping out mirror those given by students at the other end of the bell curve: They're not learning anything in school, they're bored, and they don't see any point in sticking around.

If high-end programs were cut, "yes, they'd probably survive," Scheibler said. "But I've read that a large percentage of the people on death row are gifted, based on IQ tests. Something went wrong."

And there are other reasons schools should push even those students who are far in front of their peers.

Not doing so, Bastin said, "is like saying my best football player doesn't need to show up for practice -- nobody would say he's good enough."

Further, she adds, "We must instill in these kids a work ethic."

Several years ago, when she taught English, Bastin said, she had triplets -- two boys and a girl -- but just one of the boys was identified as gifted.

With all three in the same class, the other two students worked as hard as they could, and usually scored in the 93 to 97 range.

Meanwhile, "the one who should have always gotten a 97 never did. He'd always get a 90 -- and never break a sweat."

We've got to instill in them a passion to push themselves and excel," she said. "Especially in science, where right now as a nation we're not competing."

Posny agrees.

"Let's look at what's needed in terms of the 21st Century -- the science, technology, engineering and math," she said. "We need creativity and innovation. We need to expand those skills, just as much as we need to bring other students up to a level of proficiency."

Winter, too, draws on a lesson from athletics to explain why maintaining programs for top students is important.

People have for years partially justified school athletic programs, along with arts, music and other activities, as a way to keep some students interested in school, he said.

"Without programs for them, that challenge them, they can become disengaged," he said.

But outside of those advanced placement and honors classes, teachers -- and even students -- say the pace of learning is slowing down to ensure that those at the bottom learn enough to pass the No Child Left Behind tests.

Bastin relates a recent conversation with a teacher "who told me it was two weeks into the year before she could start teaching because of testing and pretesting. In (advanced placement) classes, they're still moving along at a pretty good clip, but if not, you're doing a tremendous amount of remediation."

The emphasis on testing alone is taking time away from learning, she said.

She acknowledged, too, that testing does give teachers a better picture of where students are, and that data is useful.

"It has pushed our staff development, but it has cut into teaching time," she said.

Teachers aren't alone in that thinking: Rep. Jerry Moran, R-Kan., a frequent critic of No Child Left Behind, drew a standing ovation from Salina teachers at the start of the school year when he told them, "If you want fat cattle, feed them, don't weigh them" during a district-wide gathering.

"Time spent testing takes up instructional time," Scheibler agreed, saying she's seeing more students enrolling in advanced placement classes "because they don't want to sit in a regular class."

"Basic classes stick more to basic education -- not even pushing as far as the basic student is capable of doing," said senior Bridget Byquist. "In your English class, instead of working on fun projects, it's just a few concepts they drill over and over again."

Not all students see it that way. Salina Central senior Megan Robl said that after spending the past couple of years taking mostly advanced classes, she was surprised at the slower pace of some of the regular classes all seniors must take.

"I've had my eyes opened to how much slower those classes are," she said, without blaming No Child Left Behind. "I kind of understand it, it's the way regular classes are. That's the regular pace. I'm glad I've always had the opportunity to take the faster classes." Were those opportunities taken away, "that's when I'd think it's not fair -- they have to give us the opportunity to work at our level," Robl said. "I'd feel that our education wasn't really counting for as much at that point."

But in fact, at least the way No Child Left Behind keeps score, the education of top students doesn't count -- as long as they maintain that basic level of proficiency. A study released in July by the University of Chicago found that various actions, including cutting gifted programs and slowing down other classes to ensure the slowest students keep up, are predictable ways to cope with the way the law is currently written.

"These triage effects are a natural response to a system that does not reward or punish changes in achievement unless these changes increase or decrease the number of proficient students," concluded the authors of "Left Behind by Design: Proficiency Counts and Test-Based Accountability."

The report also quoted a teacher from Maryland, who described her school's response to the law.

"We were told to cross off the kids who would never pass," she told researchers. "We were told to cross off the kids who, if we handed them the test tomorrow, they would pass. And then the kids who were left over, those were the kids we were supposed to focus on." In other words, the way the law is written, all that matters is the number of students who move from not-proficient to proficient each year; the number of students who make tremendous strides but don't quite make it might as well have not improved at all. And if those already counted as proficient move further up the achievement ladder, that doesn't really count for much either, as far as the law is concerned.

Winter said he doesn't doubt that there are school districts that think that way.

"Statistically, you can do it," he said. "Calculate the number of kids you have to push over the threshold to keep your fanny out of the fire that year, and work on those 10 or 12 kids."

One way to make those achievements count, Winter and Brandert said, is for the law -- which Congress is expected to review this year -- to be amended to focus instead on the growth of the individual student. Kansas in the past two years instituted a computer system to track each individual student from year to year, even if the student moves to another district.

"We should have multiple measures of success, where students move ahead regardless of where they're starting," Brandert said.

n Reporter Mike Strand can be reached at 822-1418 or by e-mail at mstrand@salina.com.