I agree with much that is in here, but when I get to the end and read the wrapup, I despair:

“The global education race presents an important challenge to policy makers and educators alike: to develop informed communities willing and able to engage in discussion of how educational measurement, including system-level measurement tools, can be judiciously used to inform policy and practice. The kind of shift they suggest is a challenge. It will require ministers, media and educators to take a non-divisive, sense-making and collaborative approach of seeking to understand, and of deep, thoughtful engagement with data and with one another.”

This level of abstraction just makes me want to care less and less and less. I remember feeling like this when I was in grad school, alone and unhopeful with a big existential ‘why’ spraypainted on my forehead as I looked in the mirror.