Business, government, and—unfortunately—even educational leaders have fallen into the simplistic approach that accountability equals test scores. Dr. W. Edwards Deming, the American who brought true quality to the workplace and who was a statistician by training, commented that the most important characteristics cannot be measured.
Here are some characteristics which make for success that high-stake testing do not measure: character values, creativity, thinking, motivation, ambition, persistence, humor, reliability, politeness, enthusiasm, civic-mindedness, self-discipline, self-awareness, empathy, leadership, and compassion. The most important characteristic has not been mentioned, and here is how you can have some fun with it.
If
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
equals
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25
26
then
K+N+O+W+L+E+D+G+E
(11+14+15+23+12+5+4+7+5) = 96,
and
H+A+R+D+W+0+R+K
(8+1+18+4+23=15+18+11) = 98.
Both are important, but both fall short of 100.
The most important factor, however, hits the magic mark, namely,
A+T+T+I+T+U+D+E
(1+20+20+9+20+21+4+5) = 100.
