Yet another reason why this standardized testing fetish is bullshit. Let's keep it up, America, and future generations will be even more ignorant than current ones.

And fuck that supervisor from Colorado Springs, the fucking whitest most conservative place on the goddamn planet - home of the Focus on the Family Visitors' Center and the Pro-Rodeo Hall of Fame - where people will get down on their knees and suck dick at the altar of Bill Owens' CSAP tests. It has next to nothing to do with teachers being creative if they A) don't have fucking time and B) have conversations that go like this:

Teacher: Hey, everyone, let's talk about the war in Iraq
Student: Is this going to be on the state exam?
Teacher: No.
...

And that's it - end of discussion. Trust me on this one; I know what I'm talking about. That one single question - "Is this going to be on the exam?" defined my entire high school career, and had some ugly side effects that have lasted well beyond HS.