Personally, I cannot stomach "teaching to the test" but understand teachers don't have much of a choice these days.
I think a major problem with the standardized testing & the responsibility thrust on the schools is that we aren't testing/tracking the PROGRESS that the individual child is making in a school year.
A school that serves a predominantly affluent area will get students that attended preschool (their parents could afford it) and so these kids are well prepared when they start out in kindergarten. Also, as the years go on, these same parents can afford private tutors if their child(ren) need it. And, these same parents are better educated themselves so they are more likely to (1) esnure their kid(s) do their homework, and (2) can help their kids with their homework.
A school that serves a predominantly poor area will get students that did not attend preschool or Headstart (Headstart can only handled so many kids a year; far less than the number of kids that NEED it), and so these kids enter kindergarten ill-prepared. They're behind the 8-ball from day one. The parents of these kids cannot afford private tutors, plus are probably not well-educated so cannot help their children with homework. So these kids start behind and continue to slip throughout their school years.
How do you teach to the grade standards when the kids are far behind? Do you ignore the higher performing kids, and focus on the ones that are behind hoping to pull them up? Or do you help the better educated kids and let those that are behind just flounder?
If we tested for progress made during the school year, the schools would be more motivated to teach ALL of their students ... wanting ALL students to show signifcant progress. If a child does not meet the standards for their grade at the end of the year, but have made progress, they might need to be held back one year so they can catch up and meet standards by the end of the next school year.
On a side note, eliminating art & music programs is nuts IMHO. There are plenty of studies showing the link between music and math proficiency. Yet if a school wants to improve their math scores, they poor the money into "teaching to the math test" instead of reinforcing music instruction. Go figure.