In 1983, Russian TUNDRA space satellites picked up what looked like 5 American ICBM Missiles headed straight for Moscow. Lt. Colonel Stanislav Petrov, for "reasons having to do with human intuition" (Jacobsen, 2024) decided not to report it up the chain... In education we have this bad habit of nullifying the good things we are doing by saying, "And their test scores went up!"  It's great that their test scores went up, but that's not nearly as important as what we are actually trying to teach them. Nobody cares about test scores more than a minute after they're collected. Let's instead see the journey as the end in and of itself, and not try to justify good strategies by how students perform on tests.  By doing this, educators will be able to have confidence in their work, by NOT justifying that excellent work by invoking the blessing of dogmatic test score results.  ## Focus on what you're trying to do first: If you're taking the time to spend your class time doing something valuable, like cooperative learning, for example, be confident in the plentitude of research that shows how that is valuable, rather than resorting to justifying it as this teacher did:  > "It took them two months to make this really work,” the teacher says, “but they finally got it together. What’s more, their test scores went up” (loc 3793, Lickona, 1992) It does take time, but it is worth it to take the time to learn how to do cooperative learning well. Lickona goes on to list all the benefits of cooperative learning, and test scores need not be one of them. It feels like teachers are justifying things like cooperative learning by saying "and it raises test scores!" They don't need to justify it with that, they can justify it with the myriad benefits it already offers.  ## Identify the actual benefits that matter:  Lickona (1992) helpfully lists six benefits of cooperative learning:  1. Cooperative learning teaches the value of cooperation. 2. Cooperative learning builds community in the classroom. Tell the reader why this matters. 3. Cooperative learning teaches basic life skills 4. Operative learning improves, academic achievement, self-esteem, and attitude towards school 5. Cooperative learning offers an alternative to tracking 6. Cooperative learning has the potential to temper the negative aspects of competition Academic achievement is significant, but buried in the middle of number four. It is certainly not the main benefit, nor is it enough of a main benefit to get its own list number.  Rather than hiding behind benefits of academic achievement, teachers would be wise to focus on the other five and a half benefits listed by Lickona and not needing to justify them to satisfy the Testing Gods.  ## School is just a part of the Journey We must recognize that "where a child is at this moment is really a part of a continuous and hopefully long life journey" (loc 3680, Berkowitz, 2021). Our school is not the destination, nor are our test scores the end goal for our students.  Our goal for their progress should be focused on that journey, rather than the autopsy of test scores. We should focus on helping them achieve their next waypoint, not treating them for where they are, but treating them for where we want them to be, and test results can safely be ignored. Because nobody is going to care about their test results in a surprisingly short amount of time. Least of all the kids themselves! We need to see the bigger picture and help them see where they can eventually go and what they can eventually be part of.  Taking a developmental approach is much more akin to this journey-based approach. "From a static perspective, we should treat kids where they are. From a Developmental Perspective, we should try to support them in moving to the next 'waypoint' on their developmental journeys" (loc 3702, Berkowitz 2021).  ## Stop Academizing Everything  Academizing means that we try to make it academic, scientific, or data based when it doesn't have to be. Vigotsky's zone of proximal development "is a space in one’s developmental journey where next steps are first developed" (p. 156, Berkowitz, 2021). What that means is that in order for kids to take the next step, they need to be in their zone of proximal development.  "Educators have long tried to create educational spaces that allow for such ZPD play and mastery. This is done with a focal eye on that developmental journey from current stage to next growth" (p 156, Berkowitz 2021) Unfortunately, we try too hard to academize this with specific ways of measuring and don’t have enough trust in our intuition to see where it can be made better.  Data can be valuable, but we cannot discredit the need for human intuition, especially in cases where the future is at stake. We rely so much on data-driven decisions, assessments, scores, indicators. At a recent event I attended, someone asked by what objective standards contestants for a pitch event would be selected as the winner. As the presenter hemmed and hawed her way around an answer to say it was objective, it ultimately came down to her saying, "Sometimes, we can just believe in that person and know they've got what it takes to make this happen." What she was uncomfortable saying was, "Of course it is subjective!" Because that is the reality. There is no objective way to say that one person's business plan can even be compared to another's objectively, especially when they serve different audiences, different ideas, and different outcomes. In education, it may be great that 95% of students pass a certain benchmark, but what we must never forget is that for those 5% of students who didn't pass that benchmark, they 100% don't get it well enough. In business, the data may say that we should stop doing a specific thing, but not doing that thing could alienate our most passionate customers. Petrov later told Washington Post reporter David Hoffman "I had a funny feeling in my gut. Who starts a nuclear war with another nuclear superpower with 5 ICBMs?" ## Data Fails us Ideally, we want to have all the data in the world and know that it is true, correct, and perfect. Unfortunately for the data hawks, human beings are not robots, or widgets, and so we must take care to ensure we are focused on the reasons why we are doing things, and not justify everything with the data. ## References - Berkowitz, M. W. (2021). _PRIMED for character education: Six design principles for school improvement_ (Kindle ed). Routledge. - Jacobsen, A. (2024). _Nuclear war: A scenario_. Dutton, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC. - Lickona, T. (1992). _Educating for character: How our schools can teach respect and responsibility_ (Kindle ed). Bantam Books.