How long? How long?

I saw a headline yesterday: New Test, Same Results.

Of course, the story was about the test in Texas for students to take that is in its second year.  The test was supposed to have been an improvement over all the tests that had come before - 5 of them over 4 decades. At first the test was to evaluate students' academic skills and to establish a minimum level so that the public could see if their children were learning what the schools were teaching.  Very soon afterward, legislators raised teachers' salaries.  That triggered the need in legislators' minds to show the community that teachers deserved their higher pay.  So the emphasis changed from a student focus to teacher scrutiny.  Tests were seen as a measure of how well a teacher taught particular concepts.  Publishing teachers' results followed.  Then equality struck the school district consciousness and they wanted to show that the district was strong no matter where a student went to school or what teacher a student had.  The state bought the idea and began publishing a district's "report card" based on the results of a single test.  In the process of all the testing, a standardized curriculum was introduced (at first as a ruse for the equality of schools, but now as a basis for manipulation of test results to reflect the percentage needed to show progress).  The newest, most improved version of the test is supposed to show a community that the curriculum is a good predictor of work and college readiness (as if those two readiness outcomes were ever aligned).

Of course, the story was about the test showing a familiar pattern of failure on the part of the schools.The evolution of testing over the last four decades shows a very close link to what legislators want the public to see in their schools.  It's a hilarious notion to link the testing to learning or even what is in the standard curriculum... hilarious.. as in absurd... like ludicrous... such as the rip-roaring, gut-splitting laughter echoing across 4 decades.

If I wake up in the year 2018, I will see a headline for the day:  New Test, Same Results.  It will be meant as a lament, but all I will only hear is ridiculously loud laughter.