It pains me to see how much time teachers are forced in Oakland Unified School District to "teach to the test," in ways that takes away valuable days (and weeks) from teaching, and doesn't contribute to truly understanding the connections between subjects.

And then the schools that are largely immigrant and poor get punished by having their funding withheld or management taken over if they consistently score low, as if the test would motivate teachers to teach so well that newly arrived immigrant kids would magically learn English in 6 months.