Likewise, they could ace the final, and it might not make a difference on their transcript. It is easy to see why our kids, from elementary school to high school, are irritable and combative at this time of year. And many of them think their teacher will be fired if they don't do well. Meanwhile, there is great concern about the attitudes of the shrewd and worldly eighth-graders, who are blowing off this test because they know the scores don't count against them. The result of all this testing, aside from miserable kids and, by extension, miserable parents, is the loss of instruction time.
Teachers have less time to get their job done.
Not just because the tests themselves take a class period or more to administer, but because the teachers have to teach the kids how to take these tests. Their jobs might depend on it. The end of the school year is always a mad rush to the finish line, with teachers trying to catch up with ambitious lesson plans. To take away more time to prep for more tests and to administer these test only compounds the pressures of the last weeks of school. If it is unpleasant for our kids, imagine what it must be like for the good teachers out there who had some pretty creative ideas that must now give way.