I do not think they have been field-testing new passages. And, as I indicated, I think that is a problem in terms of the vitality of the program and the sense of continuous professional transformation. The concept of outgrowing oneself has proved incredibly powerful in examining the growth of individual professionals and organizations, such as schools. I do not know why we would think the same would not be true for institutions, like an assessment system. If we did not have IGAP to report in the newspapers, they would find some basis for rank-ordering schools.
People love competition and rankings.
We do it for sports, music, even the quality of life in different places. I see no reason to expect it to stop. But I have no preference for either as an accountability indicator. But they mislead us every bit as much if not more. They assume that we really know what it means to meet the state standard and that it somehow means the kid can read.