A number of alarming consequences result when for-profit management practices, using standardized tests as management tools, are applied to public schools:

(1) As indicated in the NC School Psychology Report on Standardized Tests in NC , the tests lack validity when applied to individuals rather than schools or school districts for which the tests were originally validated. Managing students "by the numbers" in the parlance of business, is a dubious strategy in almost any book. But if one chooses to manage an individual student, by the numbers, then the numbers better be right. Neither the state nor any independent source has validated EOGs or EOCs for measurement and management on an individual level. The numbers aren't right, so the management can't be right. We might as well navigate a ship on the high seas with a magnet stuck to the compass.

(2) The margin of error in the test is tremendous. Again, this margin was deemed acceptable for the rough measurement of schools or districts, not individual students. Mis-management by poor numbers is the outcome again.

(3) The business community generally has one strategy for the consistent low-performer - termination of employment. Would the business mentality advocate the same in the public school arena? Yes. Timmy will first be retained in fifth grade. He will be humiliated and stigmatized because he lives in a broader society that strokes success and condemns failure. Timmy will condemn himself, he will blame himself, and in the end, all too often, he will fire himself. He will quit school.

(4) The business community is above all, competitive. Values of cooperation and work are subordinate to the value placed on success. In the business world there are winners and losers. The norm-referenced tests given by the state of North Carolina guarantee that there will be winners and losers. Reliance on norm-referenced tests means that the winners could be incompetent. It could mean that the "losers" are almost as sharp as the "winners." Since the test, by its very design, guarantees that there will be both categories, extracting meaningful data is a crapshoot. Through constant exposure to business and sports, people are accustomed to the winner/loser model. People are not usually motivated to ask what "winning" and "losing" on a standardized test really means, and thus the business model prevails, unchecked and undaunted.

(5) The business model sees its employees and its products as almost infinitely moldable into whatever managers and engineers desire. That thinking may work in an assembly plant but it is quite out of place in a classroom. Children are not employees and they most certainly are not Silly Putty. They should not be treated as if they are working to get a promotion or a raise. We should not send the message that only a select group will get the promotion or raise. Furthermore, it is utterly inhumane to treat a child like Silly Putty, like a widget. Children develop at different rates and have different learning styles. While a foreman on the line may not have the luxury of tolerating employees that have different abilities or learning styles, humane educational practice has no other choice than to meet the student on her level and exercise patience in order to lift her up. It is wrong and unfruitful to place teachers in the role of Quality Assurance Supervisors making sure the defects are properly labeled and steered toward minimum wage jobs. Stigmatizing a child only serves corporate interests to have the schools sort out their labor pool for them. Negative labels will never serve the child's interest.

We don't have to sever the ties between business and public education. But business should not be at the head of the educational system to operate it for its own ends. Business must be checked by the broader public interest. It is illegal in NC for a teacher to simultaneously serve on a school board for which he or she works. Such a practice is considered a conflict of interest. That's a wise law. Given the undue influence NCCBI has already had on public education in NC (the ABCs are essentially a clone of a program originally proposed by the NCCBI) Mr. Kirk should resign one of his jobs.