Very good blog post by a 25-year teacher who is tired of all the tests:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs...throw-my-students-to-the-testing-wolves/

I particularly like this part:

I there should be more standardized testing, not less. In elementary school in Massachusetts there are two mornings each devoted to math and English tests, and I think it would be fine to devote another morning each to social studies and science tests. Why shouldn't I get any objective information about how my children are doing in these subjects? I can look at their report card grades, but how do I know what a "3" or "4" means, in the absence of a published grade distribution? Our elementary schools like to talk about how wonderful they are. At the open house the principal describes the teachers are "superstars". They aren't. I'm not. Standardized tests actually let parents compare performance across schools. No wonder schools don't like it.

Why don't teachers just spend time teaching what they think should be taught, and when it come to testing, just let the chips fall where they may.

Isn't test prep basically cheating the system?

Massachusetts releases old MCAS questions, and other states do the same. Having students practice on released questions cannot be called cheating. My middle child occasionally works through old MCAS tests for fun. Whether practicing on old questions boost scores is unknown. Once students become familiar with question formats, I doubt that further practice helps much.

All those scores tell you is how well the students, in aggregate, are meeting the most basic educational goals. I find no value in it. Maybe if my child was falling below the achievement floor in her current school, it would have some relevance to her.

Test prep is a feature of the system given human nature.

The school DS4 attends does it this way. But it is not a public school.