Great idea. Never happen.I love it. A way to defuse the ultimate conflict of interest in the teaching profession. Unfortunately, this would pave the way to precisely what some teachers hope to avoid when they pass failing students; evaluation of the teachers and the teaching method.

Just think -- independent testing of students could be done in a blind environment where the tester didn't know the student, or even anything about the student (gender, age, ethnicity, socio-economic status). This would eliminate bias (I don't like this child, this child's parent scares me, this child usually does better), and could lead to an independent measure of each teacher's effectiveness.

Yeah, I can see the teachers' unions going along with that. Although, if they thought of it as liberating teachers from the burdens of marking (and all of the psychological baggage I outlined above that comes with it), they'd see it as a good thing. I can dream, can't I?

(Don't get the impression that I think it's a bad idea -- I think it's brilliant. Just playing devil's advocate...)