Over here standardized testing has more to do with securing state and federal funding than it does with assessing the students and planning educational goals for them.

Currently, my district suffers through standardized testing every single year starting in 4th grade all the way to 12th.

Standardized tests piss me off. I could have smacked my kid's teacher a couple of weeks ago. She had my son so worked up over the tests, he thought he might not pass 4th grade if he didn't get to sleep on time one night. It took close to an hour to convince him that he had nothing to worry about and the test wasn't for a grade.
Oh yeah, and he has yet to get a grade lower than an A- all year.