As a student myself who had 4 weeks of testing last school year I can honestly say whatever data people get from standardized tests, it isn't worth it. At least 3 weeks is also spent by teachers just preparing kids for the standardized tests because the teacher's salary is dependent on the scores. Who the fûck decided this was a good idea? It's a waste of time that could easily be spent on better educating kids. To any people out there post horror stories of standardized tests sucking. Edit 1: to clear up some confusion I'm not saying that they're horribly difficult. I'm saying that they are time consuming and pretty much useless.