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Cat, that is the main problem with standardized testing -- if teachers are simply "teaching to the test," the students have no chance to fully understand the subject.

On an administrative level, if the testing is rolled out in the context of "this is what you will lose if your students don't earn certain scores," as No Child Left Behind was, local administrators do whatever they can to avoid those penalties.

On top of that, Rhode Island lurched from one testing structure to another for decades, while other states like Massachusetts set their own standards and worked toward them.

That also means integrating the school curriculum with the objectives of the test, instead of imposing the test on a curriculum that doesn't include that content at all -- like you suggested, using the tests for their original purpose of checking a student's comprehension.

We're in the early stages of this new system, but I agree with Ken Wagner: Rhode Island needs to stick with one testing method instead of switching every few years.