Regarding the April 26 editorial "Unwise testing in education": If the purpose of the recently administered nationwide tests is to assess instructional effectiveness, which is reflected in student learning, then Japan is following the wrong strategy.
Finland serves as a case in point. One of the reasons that its schools are regarded as the world's finest is its judicious use of testing. The Finns do not give national standardized tests during the nine years of basic education. Instead, the National Board of Education evaluates learning on the basis of a sample representing about 10 percent of a stipulated age group.
Individual school results are held in strictest confidence, and schools are neither ranked nor compared.
The data are available only to the schools in question and to the National Board of Education, which use the results to help improve schools. There is none of the naming and shaming that some reformers argue is the only way of improving educational quality.
Japan is not Finland. But that's no reason to reject out of hand lessons learned from the other side of the globe.
With your current subscription plan you can comment on stories. However, before writing your first comment, please create a display name in the Profile section of your subscriber account page.