Allow me to explain one reason to have standardised tests. My last teaching job before retiring was in a school where the administration expected 75% of the stu

Allow me to explain one reason to have standardised tests. My last teaching job before retiring was in a school where the administration expected 75% of the students to pass Yr 9 Maths. The Middle School Head had come to my class a number of times to help the students, so she certainly knew what their ability was. It would have been no surprise to her that, rather than 75% passing the test, 75% failed badly. Yet, she was not prepared to accept those results. She pointed out that one particularly disruptive student had passed the previous year. Fortunately, I could point to the standardised test that showed that that particular student was in the bottom 10% in the state. My implication was that his pass in the previous year was fabricated. I was instructed not to hand back any of the students' test results, at that time. I left the school shortly after and have no idea how they would get 75% of the students to pass. But I did know that the standardised results would be a truer indication of that class's Maths ability, than the school's results would be.