[Ghoulish Delight]

All standardized tests teach you to do is take tests.

Okay, that's a bit unfair, and a small amount of standardized testing is a necessary component of tracking student progress. However, it's become the be all and end all. No Child Left Behind was written with the belief that the entire education process can be distilled and analyzed based on standardized test results. It's a load of crap. And it means 2 things. 1) Decissions are now based almost solely on the incomplete picture that standardized testing provides and 2) As these decissions fail to fix the problem (because, again, they're based on an incomplete assessment), the "solution" is to attempt to make the picture more complete with more standardized testing. Soon, the only things that will be taught is how to pass a test. And teaching someone how to pass a test is NOT the same as teaching the subject.