ABSTRACT
Pretend that you are a parent of a four-year-old daughter who has been unusually quiet and inactive for the past few hours. You touch her forehead and discover that it seems warm. Clearly, you are concerned. So you head to the kitchen, take a tablespoon from one of the kitchen drawers, then return to your daughter’s side so you can use the tablespoon-to take her temperature. I’m sure you recognize that if you tried to measure a child’s temperature with a tablespoon instead of a thermometer most folks would think you’re rather confused. Unfortunately, in education there’s a lot of confused behavior taking place these days, because people are judging the effectiveness of our schools using measurement tools that are absolutely wrong for such a purpose.
