My wife has had to administer these tests and her observation is that a lot of the kids get the right answer and either circle it or write it in. They just don't get the connection between the question and the little ovals they are supposed to fill in despite all of her efforts to explain how to take the damn things.

What's even worse is how the GOP is allocating funding based on school results. That's directly penalizing the poorer districts where parents often both work and in many cases don't have Internet access at home. It's also shifting money from the poor districts to the more affluent ones. Standardized tests are bullshit and they always have been, even when I was subjected to the "Iowa" tests and know for a fact that a lot of my peers were just making patterns with the ovals to get it over with - because they bragged about it. Taking it seriously had no impact on anything at the time. Despite the financial impact, I doubt there's much of a difference in what percentage take them seriously.

When they were busy bribing/sending the Superindents for some hard work in Singapore. I'd like to go to Singapore particularly on somebody else's dime.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/02/education/inquiry-into-school-officials-travels-paid-for-by-pearson.html