I know a lot of educators that like standardized test - and I know that I have used them from time to time. They are a "great way to see where everyone stands" and various other things. Even the idea of "what you assess is what gets better"
BUT
In so many educational systems the teaching slowly transforms into a class on how to pass the test. NOT about the knowledge or the application of the knowledge that should happen.
The focus of education - at all levels should be about learning and how to apply that. Basically it should be about thinking. How to think, how to come to an answer, how to figure it out - and unfortunately when we need to pass a standardized test, what we are "teaching" is how to memorize specific points of data.
Having moved from child/young adult education into working with adult and seeing how their formal education is sometimes a detriment to their workplace success - you can tell the students that are GREAT at passing tests, but in work they usually are not the most successful employees.
On the flip side, I have seen it time and time again where employees that are doing really well (and I have asked them to co-teach with me) they have said "but I am not good in school" or "I have failed so many tests - I wouldn't be a good teacher." But really what they are saying is "I didn't do well on standardized test, so got bad grades. However, I figured out how to think for myself and now really know how to ____(what ever the topic is that we are trying to cover)."
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