In light of the two conferences--Managing for Performance and the Mission-Driven Management Summit-- Ascendant held last week and the discussions around performance management in our education systems as well as the nonprofit and government sectors, I was surprised to read an article about new steps New York State is taking in today's Wall Street Journal, "State to Target Cheating by Teachers."

According to the article, "the day after state lawmakers approved a measure under which student scores on state tests will count for up to 40% of teachers' annual evaluations," they created "an investigative unit to combat cheating by aiding local districts and probing the most egregious cases."

At Ascendant, when we train and help clients develop performance measures, we emphasize two important aspects of adopting the right measures: (1) Measures provide information to help answer the question "How are we doing?" and (2) Measures drive behavior – they can change the way people act.

With this announcement, New York State is saying to me that they are adopting a measure they know will drive bad behavior--teacher aided cheating--because in connection with its adoption, they are establishing an entity to police the expected bad behavior. This is especially curious in light of recent cheating scandals in Atlanta and Washington, DC, as the article points out.

The creation of the special investigative unit begs the question many school districts around the country are struggling with: Is there a better measure to track teacher performance than student standardized test scores?

• Chicago Public Schools: "That Used To Be Us" (September 14, 2012)