The recent release of the 2024 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) results brought unwelcome news: Maine’s math scores have not significantly improved since the lows of 2022, and reading scores continue to fall. The number of students scoring proficient or advanced on the test has been declining since 2013.

On the same day the NAEP results were released, the Maine Department of Education (DOE) scheduled a presentation of its “Measure What Matters” report. That project argues that test scores are just one data point and that Maine should measure school success based on how equitable and inclusive schools are, how socially and emotionally intelligent students are and how student- and community-centered the educational experience is, among other non-academic measures.

It’s no coincidence that the Measure What Matters presentation was scheduled on the same day the NAEP results were released. Briefing the NAEP results to the Legislature’s Education and Cultural Affairs committee one week later, the DOE repeatedly referenced Measure What Matters to deflect from bipartisan criticism that test scores have fallen under its watch.

If Maine continues prioritizing subjective, social-emotional learning metrics over objective measures of academic success, students, not DOE bureaucrats, will pay the price.

The DOE has tried to gain buy-in for its experimental project to move away from traditional education and toward social-emotional learning by claiming the Measure What Matters project has community backing. But these sessions primed participants to say what the DOE wanted to hear. Videos, cue cards, exercises and facilitators push respondents toward saying that non-academic aspects of school are what matters. This is by design.

Ultimately, the point of Measure What Matters is to downplay the role of academic achievement in defining educational success. The DOE is doing this because the state is not performing well on objective metrics. It’s not just the NAEP scores, either; the DOE’s own numbers show that 35% of students are below state expectations in English, 53% in math and 66% in science.

The reason we should care about math and reading scores is that test scores actually measure what matters: your knowledge of a subject and your ability to use that knowledge to do well at school and work. Students with higher standardized test scores get better grades and earn more money after college. While test scores aren’t everything, they matter a great deal because they measure whether students are learning the academic skills needed to succeed at school and in the real world.

The benefits of social-emotional learning, by contrast, have been greatly oversold. Studies demonstrating their effectiveness tend to be biased and low-quality, and Maine’s total embrace of social-emotional learning in education over the past few years has not improved academic performance. Instead, it has normalized invasive mental health practices and ideological activism in schools, undermining trust in the education system and cutting into precious class time.

This is why it is concerning that the DOE has embraced the Measure What Matters initiative. Measuring school success based on holistic and social-emotional factors will only lead schools to further deprioritize reading, writing, math, science and the other components of a high- quality education.

The end result will be students ill-prepared to handle the rigors of higher learning or the demands of a competitive workplace. Tests, for all their imperfections, continue to measure what matters in education more reliably than any feel-good alternative.