This is what happens when you place too much importance on test scores: A Cautionary Tale from South of the Border

Today's blog post is about standardized testing and this New York Times article from last week illustrates the dangers of placing too much emphasis on this one narrow measure of student achievement. Over the past several years, we have witnessed the data-driven frenzy that has seized the Ministry of Education in their drive to deliver on the election promise of 75% of students scoring at Level 3 or higher on the EQAO tests. The almost immediate trickle-down effect this has had on school boards and schools has been very obvious, and this, in turn, has impacted on teachers' professional practice.

Just south of the border, in the neighbouring state of New York, the use of test scores to determine bonus pay, who gets laid off, which schools get closed for poor performance, etc., shows the extreme to which test scores can become the tail wagging the dog. A very interesting read, indeed (click on the link below, or on the title of today's post):

Mayor Says Student Scores Will Factor Into Teacher Tenure
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/26/education/26teachers.html?emc=eta1

Here are the first two paragraphs from the above article...

"WASHINGTON — Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said on Wednesday that New York City public schools would immediately begin to use student test scores as a factor in deciding which teachers earn tenure, a proposal that has been bitterly opposed by the teachers’ union and criticized as putting too much weight on standardized exams.
The city already uses test scores in evaluating the system: to determine teacher and principal bonus pay, to assign the A through F letter grades that schools receive, and to decide which schools are shut down for poor performance. The mayor is now putting even more weight behind those scores by using them to decide which teachers should stay and which should go."