In responding to John Raven's critique of the current situation in education and the role of evidence-based interventions, there are a number of observations that Steve Higgins makes, but he starts by supporting Raven's key argument about the damage that high stakes accountability has done to the system of teaching and assessment in schools. This paper discusses the following changes in the national educational ecology: (1) curriculum stenosis; (2) narrowing within subjects; (3) shallow learning--teaching to the test; and (4) gaming the system. Higgins states that the issues causing concern are not rooted in psychology or measurement, they are fundamentally philosophical, sociological, and political challenges. [For John Raven's "Diving in Where Angels Fear to Tread: Pre-Requisites to Evidence-Based Interventions," see EJ1248321.]