Were the new tests more reliable than the old tests? I have no idea. And that’s really the point. It’s awfully difficult to appraise the quality of tests except by way of the test results. Are they reasonably consistent? Do they more or less conform to what experts think they should be? What politicians want them to be? It’s all rather circular. Again, I don’t deny the importance of testing, and I’m certainly not suggesting we do away with it. What I’m urging, though, is a measure of skepticism and caution in how much weight we give to test results alone.
