ABSTRACT
An Orwellian accountability machine drives teaching to the test, extra revision sessions after school, in the holidays, on In Service Training days, on weekends and even on exam day. It forces good teachers out of the profession. It damages the reputation and status of schools and teachers. The machine encourages quick fixes. It encourages and honours head teachers who prioritise short-term success over long-term improvement. It supports the myth of "super teachers" and "super heads", some of whom have imploded under the pressure of this portrayal. If there is one thing everyone can learn from Wales, it's that if there is even a whiff of top-down accountability attached to tests, the numbers will go up, in near-perfect correlation with their meaninglessness. Like the spring, pressure to improve ran downhill from Inspectors to Local Authorities to head teachers to teachers and to pupils.
