I was glad to see this paragraph included in the article:
> By the time they take the eighth-grade tests in the spring of the year, they already know which high school they will be attending, and their scores on the test have no consequences. “The eighth-graders don’t care; they rush through the exam, and they don’t check their work,” Abbott said. “The test has no effect on them. I can’t make an argument that it counts for kids.
Anytime anyone makes an argument that teachers should be evaluated based on their kids' test scores I have to explain about the problems of misaligned incentives. If the kids are not motivated to do their best, it's not going to be a fair evaluation of the teacher even if you manage to solve ALL the many other problems with high-stakes testing. And a lot of students aren't motivated to do their best on these kinds of tests, for a variety of reasons.
> By the time they take the eighth-grade tests in the spring of the year, they already know which high school they will be attending, and their scores on the test have no consequences. “The eighth-graders don’t care; they rush through the exam, and they don’t check their work,” Abbott said. “The test has no effect on them. I can’t make an argument that it counts for kids.
Anytime anyone makes an argument that teachers should be evaluated based on their kids' test scores I have to explain about the problems of misaligned incentives. If the kids are not motivated to do their best, it's not going to be a fair evaluation of the teacher even if you manage to solve ALL the many other problems with high-stakes testing. And a lot of students aren't motivated to do their best on these kinds of tests, for a variety of reasons.