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Monday, February 25, 2013

The Quick and the Ed » The Full Weight of a Moratorium on Testing

The Quick and the Ed » The Full Weight of a Moratorium on Testing:


The Full Weight of a Moratorium on Testing

Like most people who have struggled with weight, there was a time when I decided to deal with the problem by simply refusing to get on the scale.
I know I am not alone in this behavior. But eventually, other evidence (outgrowing a favorite pair of jeans, a bad blood pressure reading) usually brings people back to the recognition that, however unpleasant they may be, regular weigh-ins promote accountability.
That’s true for school systems as well, particularly for high-performing systems. It’s all too easy for high average test scores to mask some real problems.
In an op ed in The Washington Post yesterday, I pointed out that although Montgomery County, Md., has, on