Bobyoungbalt, I could comment on several parts of your message, but I'll stick with one for now - the standardized test.

I'm a very strong proponent of standardized tests. I've said this on several fora, but I don't recall whether I've mentioned it here. The problem with the tests is that the tend to get too difficult and too specialized.

There are different types of standardized test. There is the test whose purpose is to test specialized knowledge - surely those CAN and OUGHT TO BE specialized. There is the college entry test, those can justifiably have some specialized requirements, but on the whole should be general.

Then there is the Standards of Learning (SOL) type test in places like VA. These OUGHT TO BE very simple tests and should test extremely general knowledge. (Actually, I have a vague memory of saying this on here once before.) Example of a bad question: "Tobacco was brought to VA in what year?"
and possible answers were 2 years apart. This is a fundamentally stupid question to ask on such a test. (If the person who put this question on that test is still employed in the field, that alone would be sufficient to demonstrate incompetence of the current system in general.)

The fact, however, that some few of the questions on the test are stupid, doesn't change the fact that the teachers are using it as an excuse for incompetent teaching. If a student is learning what he's supposed to be learning, then he ought not to have to study to the test. Any punishment that gets meted out to the schools though should be shared by the parents. Parents whose kids do especially poorly should be required to pay higher taxes.

If there are a few items on the test that have not been covered, that's okay, as missing a few questions won't affect one disastrously. It's far better to have a penetrating insight into a small amount of material than to have no insight at all into any of it.

On numerous occasions while I was a tutor, I tried to take some effort to teach students - actually help them understand a few things instead of memorizing - and was (not rebuked, but asked not to) by the teacher. It's staggering really. (There are precious few things that actually have to be memorized in a geometry class. If you're memorizing a bunch of stuff, you're missing something.)

k