In general though, the ability to guess the teacher’s password is not a measure of literacy. To the point that entered this line:
A) That an apparently literate and intelligent person thought that a state-standardized test was an accurate measure of literacy
I think that (A) is true because of Spearman’s g. The evidence for g is overwhelming.
Suppose there was a test with a single score that was 50% based on password guessing and 50% based on literacy: It is not the case that because password guessing and literacy both correlate to intelligence, that this test measures literacy.
Password guessing is a specific skill, like literacy or calculus. Those skills develop faster in people with high intelligence, but they can be developed to a high level in almost anybody. My experience with education makes me believe that the skill of password guessing is being intentionally taught to the detriment of the skills of literacy or math, precisely because it results in a greater increase in test scores on the tests used to evaluate the teachers.
In general though, the ability to guess the teacher’s password is not a measure of literacy. To the point that entered this line:
Suppose there was a test with a single score that was 50% based on password guessing and 50% based on literacy: It is not the case that because password guessing and literacy both correlate to intelligence, that this test measures literacy.
Password guessing is a specific skill, like literacy or calculus. Those skills develop faster in people with high intelligence, but they can be developed to a high level in almost anybody. My experience with education makes me believe that the skill of password guessing is being intentionally taught to the detriment of the skills of literacy or math, precisely because it results in a greater increase in test scores on the tests used to evaluate the teachers.