Now there's one for the law of unintended consequences...

...except I'm kinda sorta semi sure that this isn't an unintended consequence. The Washington Post (registration required) reports that it's the highest achievers who are most likely to leave underperforming schools under the "No Child Left Behind" law:

Eight-year-old Umaid Qureshi does math problems for fun and reads most nights before bed. His mother thinks her son might become a doctor, like her. Or maybe he will follow his father's lead and become a software consultant.


So when Fairfax County sent Shafaq Qureshi a letter in August explaining that Umaid's school -- McNair Elementary in Herndon -- fell short on standardized test scores and that any McNair student could transfer to a better-performing school, she decided there was no reason for him to stay.