The new state "accountability system" by which schools are judged based on standardized test scores is an improvement over the old. But slavish devotion to standardized testing already has done harm to public education in the United States, and could continue to do so unless we change our focus.

First the improvement: Schools this year were judged on a more complex metric than they were in the past. Each student's score on either the Connecticut Mastery Test or the Connecticut Academic Performance Test was factored into a school's overall score on a scale of 100. Under the old system, established by the No Child Left Behind law, schools were judged solely on how many students reached a set mark of proficiency.

The new way provides a more accurate picture of a school's progress, or lack thereof, because it measures the degree to which all students improve, not just how many clear a bar. The system is a more useful tool for educators because it can show if improvement efforts are working, or need to be adjusted, in ways that No Child did not.

The problem is that standardized tests are no longer just a tool; they have become the end of public education in this country (in this usage, "end" means "goal," although the other meaning could be realized if we don't alter our ways).

No Child Left Behind radically changed American educational philosophy. Whereas standardized tests once were used as a means to see if each student was keeping up with certain basic skills, or needed remedial help, and to flag potential problems in school buildings, the tests under No Child became the focus of education itself.

Because schools were subject to punishment if scores weren't high enough, many severely narrowed the scope of what they taught kids, concentrating only on material that would be tested. Many also began devoting chunks of time to test prep instead of actual teaching. There even were cases around the country in which schools resorted to cheating to get their scores up.

The new accountability system is in preparation for the coming of the Common Core Standards, which will require all school systems to teach the same material in math and English/language arts. With the Common Core will come a new set of standardized tests. (The Mastery and CAPT exams will be gone by 2015. Scores reported for town schools this week are somewhat meaningless in terms of the "target" score the state has set for all schools to reach by 2024, because there is likely to be a significant shift in scores once the tests change.)

Local educators don't yet know what the new tests will look like. But if they are going to realize the Common Core's stated objective of developing analytical thinking skills in students, they will have to do more than teach to the test, whatever it is.