Many states already track and evaluate students' test results as a means of evaluating schools.
New federal initiatives under consideration may extend that sort of evaluation process to all public K-12 schools nationwide. We should welcome the additional information provided by these regular evaluations as yet another tool in our school districts' decision-making toolkits. The more data we have about how well our district's students are doing and how well particular programs are working, the more informed and appropriate will be the decisions we make. Making decisions based on data frequently goes against the grain of educators. We are people people, so to speak.