The reason that standardized-test results tend to be so uninformative and misleading is closely related to the reason that these tests are so popular in the first place. That, in turn, is connected to our attraction to鈥攁nd the trouble with鈥攇rades, rubrics, and various practices commended to us as 鈥渄ata based.鈥�
The common denominator? Our culture鈥檚 worshipful regard for numbers. Roger Jones, a physicist, called it 鈥渢he heart of our modern idolatry ... the belief that the quantitative description of things is paramount and even complete in itself.鈥�
Quantification can be entertaining, of course. Readers love Top 10 lists, and our favorite parts of the news are those with numerical components: sports, business, and weather. There鈥檚 something comforting about the simplicity of specificity. As the educator Selma Wassermann observed, 鈥淣umbers help to relieve the frustrations of the unknown.鈥� If those numbers are getting larger over time, we figure we must be making progress. Anything that resists being reduced to numerical terms, by contrast, seems vaguely suspicious, or at least suspiciously vague.
In calling this sensibility into question, I鈥檓 not denying that there鈥檚 a place for quantification. Rather, I鈥檓 pointing out that it doesn鈥檛 always seem to know its place. If the question is 鈥淗ow tall is he?,鈥� 鈥�6 foot 2" is a more useful answer than 鈥減retty damn tall.鈥� But what if the question were 鈥淚s that a good city to live in?鈥� or 鈥淗ow does she feel about her sister?鈥� or 鈥淲ould you rather have your child in this teacher鈥檚 classroom or that one鈥檚?鈥�
To be overly enamored by numbers is to be vulnerable to their misuse."
The habit of looking for numerical answers to just about any question can probably be traced back to overlapping academic traditions like behaviorism and scientism (the belief that all true knowledge is scientific), as well as the arrogance of economists or statisticians who think their methods can be applied to everything in life. The resulting overreliance on numbers is, ironically, based more on faith than on reason. And the results can be disturbing.
In education, the question 鈥淗ow do we assess kids/teachers/schools?鈥� has morphed over the years into 鈥淗ow do we measure ... ?鈥� We鈥檝e forgotten that assessment doesn鈥檛 require measurement, and, moreover, that the most valuable forms of assessment are often qualitative (say, a narrative account of a child鈥檚 progress by an observant teacher who knows the child well), rather than quantitative (a standardized-test score). Yet the former may well be brushed aside in favor of the latter by people who don鈥檛 even bother to ask what was on the test. It鈥檚 a number, so we sit up and pay attention. Over time, the more data we accumulate, the less we really know.
You鈥檝e heard it said that tests and other measures are, like technology, merely neutral tools, and all that matters is what we do with the information. Baloney. The measure affects that which is measured. Indeed, the fact that we chose to measure in the first place carries causal weight. His speechwriters had President George W. Bush proclaim, 鈥淢easurement is the cornerstone of learning.鈥� What they should have written was 鈥淢easurement is the cornerstone of the kind of learning that lends itself to being measured.鈥�
One example: It鈥檚 easier to score a student writer鈥檚 proficiency with sentence structure than her proficiency at evoking excitement in a reader. Thus, the introduction of a scoring device like a rubric will likely lead to more emphasis on teaching mechanics. Either that, or the notion of 鈥渆vocative鈥� writing will be flattened into something that can be expressed as a numerical rating. Objectivity has a way of objectifying. Pretty soon the question of what our whole education system ought to be doing gives way to the question of which educational goals are easiest to measure.
I鈥檒l say it again: Quantification does have a role to play. We need to be able to count how many kids are in each class if we want to know the effects of class size. But the effects of class size on what? Will we look only at test scores, ignoring outcomes such as students鈥� enthusiasm about learning or their experience of the classroom as a caring community?
Too much is lost to us鈥攐r warped鈥攁s a result of our love affair with numbers. And there are other casualties as well:
鈥� We miss the forest while counting the trees. Rigorous ratings of how well something is being done tend to distract us from asking whether that activity is sensible or ethical. Dubious cultural values and belief systems are often camouflaged by numerical precision, sometimes out to several decimal places. Stephen Jay Gould, in his book The Mismeasure of Man, provided ample evidence that meretricious findings are often produced by impressively meticulous quantifiers.
鈥� We become obsessed with winning. An infatuation with numbers not only emerges from but also exacerbates our cultural addiction to competition. It鈥檚 easier to know how many others we鈥檝e beaten, and by how much, if achievements have been quantified. But once they鈥檙e quantified, it鈥檚 tempting for us to spend our time comparing and ranking, trying to triumph over one another rather than cooperating.
鈥� We deny our subjectivity. Sometimes the exclusion of what鈥檚 hard to quantify is rationalized on the grounds that it鈥檚 鈥渕erely subjective.鈥� But subjectivity isn鈥檛 purged by relying on numbers; it鈥檚 just driven underground, yielding the appearance of objectivity. An 鈥�86" at the top of a paper is steeped in the teacher鈥檚 subjective criteria just as much as his comments about that paper. Even a score on a math quiz isn鈥檛 鈥渙bjective": It reflects the teacher鈥檚 choices about how many and what type of questions to include, how difficult they should be, how much each answer will count, and so on. Ditto for standardized tests, except the people making those choices are distant and invisible.
Subjectivity isn鈥檛 a bad thing; it鈥檚 about judgment, which is a marvelous human capacity that, in the plural, supplies the lifeblood of a democratic society. What鈥檚 bad is the use of numbers to pretend that we鈥檝e eliminated it.
Skepticism about鈥攁nd denial of鈥攋udgment in general is compounded these days by an institutionalized distrust of 迟别补肠丑别谤蝉鈥� judgments. Hence the tidal wave of standardized testing in the name of 鈥渁ccountability.鈥� Part of the point is to bypass the teachers and indeed to evaluate them, too. The exalted status of numerical data also helps explain why teachers are increasingly being trained rather than educated.
To be overly enamored of numbers is to be vulnerable to their misuse, a timely example being the pseudoscience of 鈥渧alue-added modeling鈥� of test data, debunked by experts but continuing to sucker the credulous. The trouble, however, isn鈥檛 limited to lying with statistics. None of these problems with quantification disappears when no dishonesty or incompetence is involved. Likewise, better measurements or more thoughtful criteria for rating aren鈥檛 sufficient.
At the surface, yes, we鈥檙e obliged to do something about bad tests and poorly designed rubrics and meaningless data. But what lies underneath is an irrational attachment to tests, rubrics, and data, per se, or, more precisely, our penchant for reducing to numbers what is distorted by that very act.
