Maryland Test Scores Fall, so what?

I think the Superintendent of Howard County had the right attitude about the drop in test scores when she said, "It's just one data point...There's not a whole lot of utility in them." (Baltimore Sun) Politicians and business people who don't work in a school seem to think that teachers' effectiveness should be judged by the answers that 13-year-olds give on tests. How would you like your career effectiveness to be determined by a child? Maryland has long been one of the best states, as rated by Education Week. We seem to have more common sense in applying reform. If it's not done slowly and carefully, then you get the kind of disconnect you see in these MSA results.
Nobody has mentioned this next point, to my knowledge, but I've done my own small data analysis and noted that when testing is moved from pencil-and-paper to computers, scores tend to go down. I'm wondering how much of Maryland's drop in scores could be attributed to a move to the online format?
http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2013-07-23/news/bs-md-test-scores-20130723_1_new-curriculum-test-sc...