The non-cognitive approach, bubble tests and why learning to suck up is more critical than ever.

God bless ETS. I mean if you know anything about me, you know how much I find the whole industry of bubble tests to be 1) an absolute cash cow for the bubble test makers and 2) an unquestionably flawed means for either student or teacher assessment.

And now, ETS, is unveiling -- from behind their magic black cloak of psychometrician darkness -- the all new Personal Potential Index.

PPI bay-bee! You may not know it yet but one day it'll be yet another acronym which joins your lexicon of educational alphabet soup.

Here's some info on PPI.

In short, the PPI will be attached to the new GRE as an insight into a prospective applicant's non-cognitive ability. (Stay with me here... this is worth it.)

As ETS says, the PPI is an index whereby "three or four professors or supervisors -- generally those who will also be writing letters of recommendation -- will answer a series of questions about candidates’ non-cognitive skills in various areas, as well as a more general set of questions. Applicants will be rated on a scale of 1-5 on questions about their abilities in these six areas: knowledge and creativity, communication skills, team work, resilience, planning and organization, and ethics and integrity."

Let me repeat that. A student's teachers will rate the kids "knowledge and creativity, communication skills, team work, resilience, planning and organization, and ethics and integrity."

Now, being unsure of matters, I consulted the dictionary as to a definition of cognitive. Merriam Webster defines cognitive as "relating to, being, or involving conscious intellectual activity"

Uhm, excuse me... how are any of the "non-cognitive" skills "non-cognitive?"

Okay, forget I asked.

Uhm, excuse me... aren't the quirky kids I am fond of "creative" and the quirky kids who annoy me "kids who demonstrate poor communication skills"?

Okay, forget I asked.

Uhm, excuse me... is this not an attempt to quantify unquantifiable things by people who might not really be best qualified to make these quantifications anyway?

Okay, forget I asked.

Uhm, excuse me... does this mean that sucking up is now mandatory instead of optional in order to advance in school?

Okay, I tease.

I guess on one hand I should tip my hat to ETS for finally acknowledging to their critics (like me) that their tests don't give a full enough or broad enough or accurate enough picture of test takers even though they most certainly imply that their assessments do.

Because that's really what this PPI thing is -- a concession to that exact idea. I mean, by building this PPI thing-ey, they are tipping their cap to the idea that, "Ya know what... maybe their is more to a student than the ability to choose the correct bubble with a number 2 pencil in hand."

Ya think?

The only thing I can for sure say as I watch this all unfold is that for a non-profit, ETS sure makes a lot of money.