Early in my teaching career I had the transformative experience of speaking with a student who had high grades about a possible application of some concept we covered in class. The student gave one of those blank stares that had just a hint of the primordial fear that I have seen in the eyes of my children when confronted with a loud noise or large vehicle barreling by over the speed limit.
The experience convinced me of the ineffectiveness of tests. I have had an army of students who can ape almost anything they see me do on the board, but I began to worry that test taking was a cover up for failings on both my part as an educator and the student as a learner. Perhaps American education is under-preforming for a similar reason: tests of procedure only measure a student's ability to mimic. And many test really only do test procedure.
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