Valerie Strauss writes at the Washington Post (12/17) “Answer Sheet” blog that, according to a study conducted by MIT neuroscientists, strategies employed by schools to “boost scores on the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System exams did nothing to help students improve in the development of what is called ‘fluid intelligence’ skills, or cognitive gains.” Researchers arrived at this conclusion after examining data on some “1,400 eighth-grade students in Boston’s traditional,” private and charter schools. Strauss suggests that the results “should give pause to backers of standardized test-based school reform.”