Why “good enough” is the most expensive standard in education

There is a quiet arithmetic in every classroom and exam hall. A standard that is “acceptable” compounds — across years, across cohorts, across the careers of the learners who pass through it.

The cost is paid later

A mediocre assessment does not announce itself. It simply lets through what it should have caught, and holds back what it should have advanced. The bill arrives years later, in opportunities that never came.