The education ministry's decision to allow municipal boards of education to make public the results of achievement tests for individual schools is defended as an indispensable part of the accountability process. The policy has great intuitive appeal to those who are frustrated by what they perceive as a lowering of standards.
But there's another side to the story. Although standardized tests provide one piece of information in determining how schools are performing, they are far too unstable to be considered reliable or fair, according to a briefing paper by the Economic Policy Institute. That's because factors beyond the control of teachers play an inordinate role. These include such things as parents' education, the home literacy environment and the influence of neighborhood peers.
Schools' test scores largely reflect the backgrounds of the students who enroll. Data certainly matter, but it's how the data are used that is the problem.