In this oinion piece the author asserts that the present practice of attributing high test scores to good teaching and low test scores to bad teaching, is flawed. He makes the case that test scores on standardized tests are more correlated to level of intelligence than to quality of teaching.

Unknown to the general public, many educators and news commentators, many school systems in America – especially in large urban cities – are segregated according to the test taking ability of the students. In Chicago and New York, for instance, the specialty schools such as so called magnet schools, take only above average and high scoring students while the so called “neighborhood schools” take what students are left over or systematically rejected by the magnet schools, the average and low scoring students.

It is not that parents do not care. On the whole, I have seen them show deep concern about their children’s education. But many of these parents do not take the time to teach their children number facts or reading skills. These parents must be informed early that their child’s success in school means that they must start educating their children before they enter kindergarten.