Education Commons^™

It is now widely recognised that, when performances are evaluated only in terms of measurable results, employees and organisations find ways to ‘game’ the system. Hospitals improve patient survival rates by taking fewer high risk patients; companies maximise short-term returns to shareholders by not investing in long-term growth strategies. And in extreme cases, a narrow focus on results produces corrupt behaviour – for example, manipulating a company’s financial results to make its performance look better than it is. There are obvious lessons in this experience for current efforts to improve educational outcomes. Following the model adopted in business, education systems …