Comprehensive Assessment Testing

Who made the decision and how long ago was it made? The decision that a teachers accountabilty and a students success would all be summed up with the results of one super long test? Yes, I am talking about T-CAP testing. (or F-CAP or M-CAP or C-CAP, etc, depending on what state you live in).
I totally agree that teachers need a way of being held accountable for teaching the appropriate curriculum to our children. And I agree that students should be given tests to see how far they have come, what their strengths and weaknesses are. What I do not agree with is that one test should determine the success or failure of an entire school year.
This is my childs 3rd year to have to take this test. During the weeks leading up to the dreaded T-CAP test week, the principals, teachers, and staff are on edge. My daughter comes home stressed out. Do I like it? No, not at all. However, I totally understand why. Most children want to succeed, they want to do well on their work, they want to please themselves, their parents and their teachers. And this test is a huge part of that. If a school or classroom doesnt test to the level they should, the school can be closed down, and the teacher can loose his/her license to teach. Imagine if the career you chose, that you attended college for a minimum of 4 years to achieve, that pays your bills and supports your family, could be taken away from you based on one test! I would be willing to bet that you would be super stressed.
Would it not be better to have state inspectors randomly drop in on classrooms several times throughout the school year and observe the teaching methods of the teacher, the atmosphere in his/her classroom, the compassion with which he/she teaches, his/her ability to relate to the students? I for one think so!
Take restaurants, for one example. They know the health inspector will come. Yet they do not know when. So they should make every effort to run their business each day to the perfection expected by the health department.
Why can this same idea not be implemented in our education system? Yes, it may cost money for such inspectors. Is it not worth it?
Teachers have an extremely important job. It has been my experience as a student, as a mom, as a substitute teacher, and as a teachers assistant, that our school system has an excellent collection of caring faculty and staff. Are they all perfect? Probably not. Neither are you. No one is.
We are all judged in our respective jobs. Not based on one event, but on our overall job performance. Yearly evaluations that look back over the entire year, not one week. They look back over all aspects of your job. Your attendance, your ability to work with others, your attitude, your punctuality, your overall effort.
I say we should all write to our senators, our congressmen and congresswomen, our representatives, the department of education. Let them know that one test can not and should not be the judge and jury of our childrens and educators successes.