What Gets Tested Becomes What’s Important

I can’t tell if Eduwonk asking “Does anyone seriously argue that children are not more than a test score?” is

1. a. Willfully missing the point.
2. b. More evidence that education policy wonks would be well served to try their hand at teaching for a few years.

Look, if you’re going to argue that kids and schools should be judged based on test scores, get money based on test scores, and get punished when their test scores aren’t high enough, then what’s the message you’re sending about kids and test scores? (Hint: it’s not that you value their ability to write poetry.)

Still, I wouldn’t want Andy to feel like his response went unremarked upon. In his own words:

As a rule, industries don’t reform themselves. It’s why we have a Securities and Exchange Commission and a Federal Aviation Administration . . . But good intentions are not enough; any successful industry needs to organize itself around performance.

Let’s examine that. The SEC doesn’t crack down on traders who don’t make money for their clients. They do, on the other hand, crack down on accounting fraud and misleading information. What’s regulated is intention, the intention to mislead, not numeric performance, measured by return on investment.

And what about the FAA? The jokes come so easily. Suffice it to say, I don’t know if they’re a model to follow.

So the question has to be asked, if the SEC and the FAA are valid examples of accountability, do those examples support the approach in NCLB?