“Setting Absurd Standards And Then Announcing Massive Failures Has Undermined Public Support For Public Schools. . . . We Are Dismantling Public School Systems Whose Problems Are Basically The Problems Of Racial And Economic Polarization, Segregation And Economic Disinvestment.”

(Educational Researcher, August/September 2014, p.286)  Gary Orfield.

Instead of reporting in terms of performance categories, we could report performance in terms of scale scores. A solid body of empirical research suggests that scale scores provide more complete information on performance and are more useful for the purpose of informing improvement efforts.

But unfortunately for corporate America, scale scores do not promote the lie that our educational system is failing… That lie is only propelled by reporting performance “categories” which are made up structures having no relevance outside the committee making them up……