What Is Campbell’s Law? « Diane Ravitch's blog: "In his 1976 paper, Campbell also wrote that ”achievement tests may well be valuable indicators of general school achievement under conditions of normal teaching aimed at general competence. But when test scores become the goal of the teaching process, they both lose their value as indicators of educational status and distort the educational process in undesirable ways. (Similar biases of course surround the use of objective tests in courses or as entrance examinations.)”
Campbell’s Law helps us understand why No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top are harmful to education. They put pressure on teachers and principals and school districts and states to get higher and higher test scores. As we saw in Atlanta and in Washington, D.C., this kind of pressure may cause educators to betray their ethical duty by changing test scores. As we saw in New York state, this kind of pressure may cause a state education department to lower the passing mark on state tests so as to boost proficiency rates."
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