Standardized testing is a far cry from 'standards'. The problem with ST, is that when it's linked to how much money you get to teach with and such, you're forced to Teach the Test.
Think of it like this: You want to be a programmer. You want to be creative. Does it help you more to be taught critical thinking, certain languages, to have your inventiveness supported and nourished...
or to be taught how to move around little pre-created stuff in some flowchart-type IDE.
Because that's what Standardized Testing is. Pick A, B, C or D.
And I have to say, what's with your tone? That somehow, because a person might think a government could be dodgy or work in a way they don't want, that they have to shed that belief if they want change? If that's how it works, isn't that just a confirmation and vindication of the original belief?
That whole article was, to me, just a list of "Yep, already knew that" and "Yep, I was already taking that into account."
The person just seems like.. I don't know. Kind of stupid, to be honest. I mean..
"Datastore and memcache can fail sometimes." YOU DON'T SAY.
"Memcache values max size is 1megabyte. Wanted to cache everything? You were just dreaming mate, just 1 megabyte." Who the hell is putting >1mb things into MEMCACHE? That's NOT WHAT IT'S FOR.
And the fact their thing was taking >1 second? That sounds horribly poorly done. I started getting concerns when my last site was taking a few hundred milliseconds.
Some of the terms they use also make me think they have inflated self-opinions. I mean "software craftmen"? Really?
I go to read the article. BAM, a social networking bar. Then actual inline popup bubbles, a-la Microsoft Clippy. "Do you need help reading an article?".
I want your content, not your bullshit. Fucking Web 2.0.
Think of it like this: You want to be a programmer. You want to be creative. Does it help you more to be taught critical thinking, certain languages, to have your inventiveness supported and nourished...
or to be taught how to move around little pre-created stuff in some flowchart-type IDE.
Because that's what Standardized Testing is. Pick A, B, C or D.