Accountability Beyond Testing

Student Dignity and Teacher Trust

2028 Presidential Campaign of Martin A. Ginsburg, RN

February 4, 2026

Testing as Tool—Not Tyranny

In the American education system, testing has a rightful place. Evaluations of student knowledge and readiness must be real, rigorous, and results-oriented. But when test regimes become rigid, all-consuming, or disconnected from human complexity, they cease to measure excellence and begin to suppress it.

Let us be clear: this is not a rejection of testing. It is a rejection of testing as the singular definition of learning, and of school cultures that confuse scores with substance, or compliance with comprehension.

Education is not an assembly line. And our children are not cogs in a machine.

The Problem with Testing-Only Systems

So-called “accountability systems” built exclusively on high-stakes standardized testing often suffer from five core failures:

• Curriculum Narrowing – Non-tested subjects like the arts, civics, and history are marginalized.

• Instructional Distortion – Teachers are forced to “teach to the test” rather than to the child.

• One-Size-Only Scoring – Diverse learners are judged by uniform metrics that ignore context.

• Inflexibility and Injustice – No room exists to adapt assessments to local populations or individual student profiles.

• Administrative Compulsion – Teachers are stripped of discretion, forced into scripts and pacing guides that treat students like widgets.

The system measures what it can count. But it fails to count what truly matters.

A Smarter, Stronger Accountability Framework

Rather than abolishing tests, we must reclaim their purpose: as one essential tool among many to evaluate learning and readiness. This framework proposes:

1. Testing as Necessary, But Not Singular

All students must demonstrate subject mastery before advancing. Testing remains a key component, but not the only component. Testing is evidence. It is not proof of personhood.

2. Weighted Assessment Profiles

Allow each student to be evaluated by a weighted combination of assessment tools:

• Traditional standardized tests

• Portfolio submissions

• Capstone projects or demonstrations

• Class participation, engagement, and growth

These weights would be guided by a student’s documented learning profile, not left to chance or assumption.

3. Alternate Pathways with Integrity

For students unable to succeed through conventional metrics, create alternative credentialing tracks that do not bypass rigor—but acknowledge reality. These tracks must preserve standards while building flexibility into delivery.

4. Restore the Arts to Testing Integrity

Music as well as the performing and visual arts must be assessed with seriousness, not treated as electives without metrics. These subjects are foundational to creativity, discipline, collaboration, and expression.

STEMs grow flowers. STEAM powers civilizations. The arts are not extras. They are engines.

Trust the Teacher: Let Experts Teach

Curriculum standards and materials are rightfully set by local school boards and state education authorities. But once textbooks and goals are delivered, they must be placed into the hands of trained professionals—and those professionals must be empowered to use their expertise.

Just as we entrust firefighters to deploy their hoses, nurses to dose their medications, and soldiers to lead in the field, we must entrust teachers to navigate the journey from unfamiliarity to mastery. The teacher is the expert in the room. Let them teach.

Flexibility in how material is presented, paced, and reinforced is not a weakness. It is the application of human discernment to human development.

To demand that teachers ignore their professional instincts is to ask them to violate their contract with the student—their promise to educate with care, clarity, and conscience.

Re-Centering Student Identity and Dignity

We must stop designing systems that treat non-conforming learners as broken. Instead, we must design systems that recognize:

• A non-verbal student may draw or point to demonstrate comprehension.

• A bilingual student may incorporate dual-language resources into a report.

• A neurodivergent student may require quiet testing environments or alternate pacing.

These are not excuses. These are the realities of human learning. Dignity in education means recognizing differences without compromising standards.

A National Linguistic Baseline

The United States must commit to two critical language imperatives:

English Proficiency for All GraduatesEnglish remains the global lingua franca for science, commerce, aviation, maritime law, and diplomacy. All students graduating from American high schools must be proficient in English—able to function academically, civically, and professionally in a global context.

Three-Language Mindsets for the 21st CenturyWhere resources permit, students should be supported in becoming trilingual:

• English

• Home or heritage language

• A third, non-native world language (e.g., French, Arabic, Mandarin, Swahili)

Imagine a generation fluent in English, rooted in their heritage, and ready to negotiate, explore, or collaborate in a third language. That’s not a burden. That’s the new shape of freedom.

Implementation Recommendations

Testing ReformRequire tests as one measure, not the only one; mandate assessment profile weighting flexibility.

Arts InclusionDevelop rubrics for music, visual arts, and performance-based evaluation in national readiness standards.

Teacher TrustProhibit mandatory scripts and pacing guides that override professional judgment.

Language RequirementFederal incentives for trilingual programs; national English proficiency benchmark by high school graduation.

Alternative PathwaysFund local design of rigor-preserving, flexible advancement tracks.

Looking Ahead

The goal is not to lower the bar. It is to build a broader platform on which every student can rise.

Accountability does not require rigidity. And testing is only meaningful when it leads to truth—not compliance. Teachers must be trusted to chart the course. Students must be treated as citizens-in-formation. And education must be structured not to measure obedience, but to cultivate capability.

Our children can meet any standard we have the courage to expect. If we ask them to rise, they will. But we must build a system worthy of their climb.