re: #38 William Lewis

Except that to the right wing, that’s a feature not a bug. It is exactly one of the primary purposes of “Every Child Left Behind”.

Well, it’s not just the right wing. There are plenty of “left wing” reformers who also believe in the power of test scores. Arne Duncan, for one. The Common Core was not, originally, about test scores, but the policy-makers wanted some kind of measure of the CC’s effectiveness and the test creators are all too happy to oblige. From my vantage point in a country that is obsessed with mass examinations, I worry that the USA is veering towards the exam-happy Chinese system, where exams are the gate keepers for advancement.