The only problem with Stern’s analsis is his veneration of Chancellor Joel Klein. As a teacher of 22 years in NYC public schools and 13 years in NYC Catholic schools I can tell you that Klein would fire most evry teacher in Catholic schools. Because of incompetence? No they are very competent. But because they seek to instruct and teach their students not simply raise test scores and accumulate reams of irrelevant data. Thge time I spend on aasessing, correlating, assembling, and displaying whether my kids can read a timeline or identify a cause and effect is time better spent on actully teaching. The good teacher in the Catholic school does not need reams of data to know where each of her/his kids are. They know because they are good teachers. I used to be a good teacher. Now I am just a statistician.
OK, I will defer to your expertise :-)
All I can say is WOW. Great and wise statement.