Body or mind?

To meet requirements under No Child Left Behind, New Hampshire uses the New England Common Assessment Program, known in shorthand form as NECAP, as its state testing program. Like most schools, students in the Alton School District in Alton, N.H., are encouraged to do their best on the NECAPs.

Kristi Hikel, the district's athletic director and a physical education/health teacher, surmised that students are learning more about the tests themselves than what might be on them.

"While teaching physical education to the 2nd graders, we were stretching," Hikel said. "I was talking to the students about body parts, when one little girl said, 'Mrs. Hikel, you are silly! Kneecaps aren't body parts, they're tests we take.'"