In the battle over testing, only the children should win 

If someone asked me what education issue is the most misunderstood and in need of major rebranding, I would provide my answer without a moment’s hesitation: testing. 

It seems the whole country is talking smack about testing these days, and the grievances are numerous and expansive. Ever since the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) mandated annual high-stakes testing for English language arts and math in grades 3-8 (and once in high school), educators and parents have bemoaned the awfulness of what they perceive to be an education system obsessed with testing. Teachers complain that yearly testing’s outsized influence on classroom instruction and student achievement is misguided at the very least and, at worst, destructive. Parents are concerned that too much testing is crowding out other aspects of education that they hold dear, such as arts, music, and gym. Then there’s the larger question of how best to measure student achievement. Do standardized tests really provide teachers and parents with a complete picture of a student’s abilities and potential?