testing week

My kids get tested A LOT. I mean a lot. We have four quarters and every quarter at the tail end, I find myself sitting through a week full of high stakes, boring, monotonous testing. The week before is even more grueling-hammering concepts home, for the umpteenth time, hearing the complaints about all the testing and how much they hate it, hearing how all of a sudden they have forgotten everything they learned at the beginning of the quarter. I hate testing too! I don't like feeling pressured and I don't like watching people finish before me and feeling even more pressured, I don't think it's a good measure of my abilities so why would I think it's a good measure of anyone's abilities? Yet, I must go through with it. I would love to have final tests always be culminating projects and portfolios, effort actually meaning something. But, that is apparently not something that can be assessed and improved. Data driven instruction requires data. I have some data: this type of testing is not a good measure, how about, using common sense instead-can this person think for themselves? Can he/she find a solution between a rock and hard place? Is he/she able to understand and apply concepts? I'm afraid that multiple choice tests don't account for ingenuity and the stuff that makes true, creative, fully functioning adults. I wish I could actually do something to change this. But right now, I'm just a cog in the machine and one that could be easily replaced with many other cogs who would do what was asked without a second thought. So until I have gained myself some even footing, I will just have to grit my teeth and bare it.