Houston drops NCLB standardized tests

I just got done watching the ABC national news, which by the way, a big thank you to Charles Gibson for his sign off, "I'm Charles Gibson and I hope you had a good day." Thanks Charle... I hope you had a good day too. It's funny, it's like ABC thought, "Hmmm... we just got done telling them about all of the war torn, genocide ridden, paternity testing, you better listen to our recall or your pet will die news.... how can we make them feel better? I know, let's tell them that WE hope YOU had a good day!" And it works!

Anyhow... back to the news that Houston Public Schools have decided to drop several standardized test throughout the year in exchange for one final exam at the end of the year (See the release on the school's site here). Officials are saying that they are trying to get back to teaching and learning instead of drilling and testing. You wanna know what I hated most about college (and I loved college), a class with one final exam that everything was riding on. I am a bit confused on how these people think that one final exam at the end of the year will adequately assess what kids have learned throughout the whole year. I mean maybe I am missing something here and I don't think that several standardized test are better than one, but I don't really see much of a change. The fact remains that kids will still be assessed based on one test. Actually, isn't one test much worse than several. Obviously, the ideal situation would be some sort of self-paced portfolio assessment (do they have bubble sheets for portfolios yet?) However, I don't really see why ABC was hailing Houston for stepping away from NCLB. YOU'RE STILL ASSESSING WHAT YOUR STUDENTS KNOW BASED ON ONE TEST.

I'm new at this whole teaching thing, so maybe I am missing something here. Anyone have a different take.

Oh... and I hope you had a good day (there don't you feel better)