What children really learn in a system built on high-stakes testing Jason’s Story In Assessing Children’s Learning , Mary Jane Drummond tells the story of Jason. Jason is seven and a half. He’s been at school for nearly three years. Now he’s taking a maths test in the school hall with the rest of his class. Out of thirty-six questions, Jason gets one correct. Jason hasn’t learnt much maths, Drummond says. But he’s learnt quite a bit about how to be a good pupil: ‘He has learnt how to take a test. His answers are written neatly, with the sharpest of pencils. When he reverses a digit and sees a mistake, he crosses it out tidily. He places his answers on the line or in the box as instructed…’ Jason doesn’t understand a thing on the paper, but he knows he can’t get angry and turn the table over. He can’t shout. He can’t speak to the child next to him. He knows he’s sitting a maths test, and he knows he has to write numbers. What Jason has really learnt Exams, as Jason has shown us, breed compliance.…