[bejazd]

I agree there's too much emphasis placed on standardized testing. I'd like to see more balance: the best part of standardized testing is that it does hold schools and teachers accountable for producing results. The worst part is spending so much time "teaching to the test" and not really instructing students to think or learn how to learn.

At the HS level, the students pretty much blow off the standardized tests because they know it's not important to them personally in the way that their GPA or SAT/ACT scores are. So while the elem and middle schools in my area have very high test scores, the HS is pretty dismal by comparison. Our HS principal recently propsed bumping up borderline grades in English or math (i.e. changing a B to an A) if a student had a very high score on the standardized test. THat did not go over well with teachers at all!