Education policies that affect millions of students have long been tied to test scores, but a new paper suggests those scores are regularly misinterpreted.
According to the new research out of Mathematica, a statistical research group, the comparisons sometimes used to judge school performance are more indicative of demographic change than actual learning.
For example: Last week's release of National Assessment of Educational Progress scores led to much finger-pointing about what's working and whatisn't in education reform. But according to Mathematica, policy assessments based on raw test data is extremely misleading -- especially because year-to-year comparisons measure different groups of students.
"Every time the NAEP results come out, you see a whole slew of headlines that make you slap your
