Problems in the use of pupil achievement measures for evaluating teachers, schools or systems are reviewed, with the conclusion that they are disabling. The following reasons are cited: (1) What the pupil brings to the classroom in terms of ability, previous knowledge, home and peer influence, motivation, and other influences is clearly very powerful in determining academic standing at the end of the year. (2) Student achievement reflects only a small portion of the total set of objectives for which schools increasingly are being held accountable. (3) Taking pupil standing at year-end as an indicator of teaching effectiveness frequently does not recognize standing at the beginning of the year; in addition, the problems of adjusting for prior standing are extremely serious and rarely recognized. (4) This accountability system would reward the teacher who teaches to the test or who gives primary attention to those pupils who are below minimum standards but in reach of them. (5) Such an evaluation system would probably reward teaching behavior which promotes low cognitive level learning and penalize teaching which promotes complex learning. (Author/MV)