The difference between the devil and the divinity may lie in the details, but it’s not unusual for the devil to decoy us with detail after detail, when the unexamined premiss is the screen behind which the real deil lies.

These reflections arose by way of meditation on the following blog post —

► Peter Cameron • Student Questionnaires

I didn’t mean to go all Cassandroid about it — we all know that prophecy, especially when true, is more a curse than a blessing — but I’m all out of time to exegeticize the musement today, so let me just drop a couple of clues as to what I’m talking about —

► Diane Ravitch • What is NCTQ?

► Diane Ravitch • Why Do We Treat the Tests as Scientific Instruments?

I continue to continue …

The tests themselves — good, bad, but mostly ugly — are a diversionary maneuver. The end-run we should be watching is the sneaking shift in the locus of evaluation and therefore control.

A couple of articles pertaining to the Great Education Deformation on the U.S. scene —

► John Ewing • Mathematical Intimidation : Driven by the Data

► Valerie Strauss • Leading Mathematician Debunks ‘Value-Added’

Naturally, Neyman blames Pearson.