Testing kids with a one size fits all test doesn't help the students who have different learning styles, anxiety or learning difficulties. There are children in the ' very superior' IQ range who fail tests because the tests are written, but the same kids could possibly blitz the test if allowed to do it verbally, or with frequent breaks, or allowed to stand on their heads. Then you have the kids who again may be in the higher IQ range, but if they have difficulties understanding the perspectives of others, chances are they will not petform well on english tests where there are questions asking how a character felt, why they acted a certain way and so on. Then you have the kids with sensory integration and processing difficulties, or auditory sensitivity, who have trouble even being in a class or test environment. Or the kids who may be profoundly gifted in some areas of mathematics but struggle in others (see dyscalculia). Then other kids with dyslexia, dysgraphia, highly visual spatial, etc etc. These are the kids who are told to stay home because they are considered 'low achievers' who will only contribute poor scores. Never mind that they are actually brilliant in many cases, or have superior talent in areas where they can make great contribution. There has been enough research in to underachieving kids, particularly those with higher intellectual potential. The results aren't pretty. The system causes these kids to fail all the time and things like NAPLAN are pointless exercises which do not reflect a child's strengths or knowledge in other areas. I know kids who were learning squares, cubes, square roots, algebra etc at age five but at age seven can not parrot their times tables and they are labelled as slow learners because of it. Faye -- Sent from my Xperia X10 Android phone.