Federal and state education policy relies on the belief that student achievement will improve if schools have incentives and disincentives--rewards if they succeed, sanctions if they fail--to raise test scores in math, reading and science. But even if this were a practical way to elevate such scores, a test-based accountability system is still harmful because incentives, if they work, direct institutions away from activities that are not rewarded and toward activities that are. Once incentives are attached to standardized test scores and not attached to other outcomes, testing must inevitably result in less attention paid to less-tested parts of the academic curriculum (such as the arts, social studies and physical education) and in less attention to the noncognitive goals of schooling--character traits like perseverance, self-confidence, self-discipline, punctuality, communication skills, social responsibility and the ability to work with others and resolve conflicts.