DO NOT GO DOWN THAT ROAD! BC standardized testing and it takes up quite a bit of time - even the grade 10 & 12 provincial exams tie us up. It means that if my students want to spend more time on something, we can't because we have to make sure we get in poetry analysis, or whatever will be on the exam. My kids had a wonderful time in kindergarten and grade 1 - today it's very heavily tied to testing. I hear stories from friends with young kids and they don't want to go to school. I find it interesting that we (in Canada) look to a country that ranks low on the list of countries that are doing well in education. Last I heard, Finland was number 1.