Another Unintended Consequence of "School Accountability"
The negative effects of standardized-exam-based school accountability, what might be gently termed unintended consequences if they weren't both so nefarious and so plainly evident as to think they might indeed not be unintended, are almost too numerous to count:-- Narrowing of the classroom curriculum to the "accountable" (i.e., tested) subject areas;
-- Reduction in time spent on art, music, gym, and even the sciences;
-- Teaching to the test;
-- Reduced time spent on teaching approaches that foster depth of exploration, creativity, passion, inquisitiveness, etc., and that deaden education or the notion of knowledge for knowledge's sake;
-- Repetitive practice testing that further reduce children's interest in school and education;
