But there were no consequences and not much indication that many people cared.
In short, the need for improvement is urgent. The forces that were supposed to drive that aren’t really effective. Limiting this to the question of getting a handle on the overall progress of students: Is there a better way?
For years, a big hang-up in addressing this has been the paucity of alternatives. Individual assessments of students don’t translate well into a broad answer. Taking the word of teachers or administrators about how kids are doing isn’t sufficiently convincing. Some educators say grade points could be used more, but standards for grading vary in different communities.