But even if a test is fair, it can be put to uses that are not. Low TAAS scores, for example, have not been shown to correlate with the inability to do any particular job, but the lack of a high school diploma does correlate with the inability to find work. Opportunities would be allotted on the basis of what you knew, not whom you knew. Reliance on tests grew, to compensate for the divergent standards in schoolrooms across the country. But tests cannot quantify qualities such as cooperativeness, creativity, or the perseverance a teenager needs to sit down in a two-room shack and do homework every night.
Critics argue that high-stakes tests can have other unfortunate consequences.
Proponents of testing respond that while it may be unfair to deny graduation to a kid who has passed his or her courses, it's also unfair to let a student graduate who can't read or do math. Tough love is the right kind of fairness. And you have to change the system with shock treatment at some point. Paris High School principal Randy Wade agrees. He aligned the curriculum to the test and shortened classes by five minutes in order to create a 35-minute, daily taas tutorial.