Reshaping Teaching through Managerial Use of Student Test Scores
The path of educational progress more closely resembles the flight of a butterfly than the flight of a bullet. Philip Jackson, 1968
Educational policymakers have made a similar set of assumptions in constructing accountability structures and
Top governmental policymakers and private insurance companies, deeply concerned over ever-rising health care costs and unwilling to rely upon doctors to restrain expenditures, have built structures over the past quarter-century to hold physicians accountable for their actions in diagnosing and treating patients. These structures leaned heavily upon a research base built up over decades from clinical trials on screening procedures to the effects of drugs on an array of diseases. Combining evidence-based medicine with incentives and sanctions, public and private insurers have measured, reported, and rewarded doctors’ performance in hospitals, clinics, and office practices.
In copying outcome-driven corporations, these medical policymakers and insurers relied upon performance-based metrics. They assumed that creating economic incentives for individuals and organizations would increase innovation, lower costs, and improve patient care. They identified numerous measures, confirmed in large part by results from randomized clinical trials embedded in evidence-based medicine, and implemented those measures in hospitals, clinics, and doctors’ offices. Physician “report cards” and pay-for-performance plans, however, have yet to yield promised innovations, high quality care, and reduced costs.
Educational policymakers have made a similar set of assumptions in constructing accountability structures and