There are many reasons legislators chose to mandate a standardized test as a means to school accountability, not all of them evil. (Did I say evil?)  There are three common rationalizations to mandate standardized testing in our public schools.

1) The justification most commonly given for standardized testing is that once legislators mandated standards (a set of performance objectives,) it was then necessary to calculate whether the objectives have been met. The goal had become every child, learning the exact same thing and demonstrating that learning in the exact same way, at the exact same time. This ideology is particularly dangerous to children who are unique in all ways. It's also particularly damaging to a nation who has been strengthened by diversity, imagination, and innovation.

2) Much like the industrial revolution where machines were thought to be superior, standardized tests are often deemed accurate measures of student achievement and school quality, immune to teacher error. Of course there are no artificial mechanisms that can ensure achievement and quality. Tests are manipulated by humans just as machines are manipulated by humans and all are susceptible to error. Please refer to piece "Exposing the Myths of High-stakes Testing," which provides a more detailed accounting of many of the discovered test errors and scoring failures which have been reported.

3) Lastly, many promoters of high-stakes testing feel that standardized tests are a way to punish teacher's and teacher's unions. In a way they are correct. Holding students accountable for the lowest levels of learning does penalize teachers. Unfortunately it penalizes our most engaging and creative educators, as well as our brightest and most uniquely talented children. As schools around the state close their doors, teachers lose their jobs, and class sizes grow we witness firsthand the consequences of high-stakes testing.