Campbell's law in education: test scores vs. accountability - THE DAILY RIFF - Be Smarter. About Education.

Campbell's law in education: test scores vs. accountability - THE DAILY RIFF - Be Smarter. About Education.:

Campbell's law in education: test scores vs. accountability

 by Joseph Ganem Ph.D. 

The problem of cheating on standardized tests that was recently uncovered in the Baltimore City Public Schools is apparently another in a long list of testing scandals that have plagued school districts across the country. Some might argue that these episodes provide further proof of sociologist Donald T. Campbell's observation made more than three decades ago."Campbell's law," as it is known, states that the more a quantitative measure is used for 
social decision-making, the more it will be subject to corruption pressures that distort the social process it is intended to monitor.

While I agree with that assessment, I would go further and argue that testing scandals are symptomatic of a more insidious societal problem: a refusal by its leaders to accept responsibility for the consequences of their decisions. Defining accountability in terms of a quantitative measure - a number - is actually an elaborate hoax perpetrated by the leadership to avoid being accountable.

"Defining accountability in terms of a quantitative measure
- a number -
 is actually an elaborate hoax
perpetrated by the leadership
to avoid being accountable."

For example, basing education policy decisions on standardized test scores (numbers) means that the educators in charge are relieved from using professional judgment. Consider all the effort school leaders no longer need to exert and decisions they no longer have to defend.

If the students are judged based on test scores, there is no need to consider their natural abilities and inclinations. Whether B's on a math test result from overachieving C students 
who become inspired by a great teacher, or underachieving A students who are bored