*Creates anxiety in our students as young as elementary. *Kills student confidence - students reduce themself to a test score. *It lines the pockets of publishing companies, while teachers collect box tops, soup can labels, and work profit shares to help fund classrooms. *It's not real world applicable - creates test takers instead of doers. *The goal is to highlight what students don't know instead of what they do know. *Test questions are designed to only be answered correctly by about half of the students taking them. Items answered correctly by 80%+ don't make it onto the test. *Encourages test taking strategies be taught over skill based strategies. *Data is collected for the sake of data being collected. The data does NOT drive instruction - results come back when teachers no longer have those students. The next class comes in with different needs, weaknesses, and strengths.