Standardized testing and NCLB

Does anyone else see a problem with the NCLB law and standardized testing?  I definitely see a huge drawback to standardized testing and NCLB.  It does seem like standardized testing and accountability are here to stay, but at what cost?  Teachers want to educate their students in the most productive way possible and teach higher level thinking skills but principals and district administrators only see the bottom line:  Did the students make adequate yearly progress?  And who can blame them?  Students' promotions to the next grade level, school funding, and even the decision to keep a school open make standardized testing the highest stakes game around.  In the article, Testing Expert Sees 'Illusions of Progress' Under NCLB  Cech states that according to Harvard University researcher, Daniel M. Koretz, standardized test scores are inflated because we have become a nation that teaches to the test.  If teachers are held accountable for AYP according to some random test score, then teachers will make sure that students hit that number when taking tests. "If you tell people that performance on that tested sample is what matters, that's what they worry about, so you can get inappropriate responses in the classroom and inflated test scores," Koretz said.  Koretz would like to have studies performed on assessment systems but realizes this is a political taboo.  No one wants to see their systems analyzed and open themselves up to the possibility that their system is flawed.  In other words, the government is holding teachers and students accountable to a system that is not accountable to anyone.  Although, it seems like NCLB will never go away, there is a group of business and educational leaders calling for a complete overhaul of our nation's current assessment practices.  The article, The Fourth Way of Change by Hargreaves and Shirley,  discusses how educational policy is undergoing a global transformation and "the United States is not only losing - it's not even playing the right game".  I found it especially interesting that the Nordic countries do not even have a term for 'accountability' but instead have collective responsibility and yet they are the highest performers on the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA).  The Finns have a high teacher retention rate.  In fact, they only have a 1 in 10 chance of acceptance in a teacher education program.  Further more (which I found the most interesting), teachers are free from excessive paperwork (I can't even imagine that), receive generous specialist support as needed (again, another dream in the land of CPS), and it is unheard of that someone from some central office would hand them the curriculum and be expected to teach it.  All of this so that they can teach each individual student.  At my school, we are expected to teach the exact same curriculum and give the exact same assessments to students across the grade level.  This does not take into account individual teaching styles or learning styles of the students. Their principals also must teach at least two hours a week (my students could go weeks without seeing my principal) and it is illegal to recruit a principal from outside education.  Principals are also responsible for all students in their district or town, not just their school.  And what does all this do for their students?  "Finland is the number one performer in literacy, math, and science in the PISA rankings for 15-year-old students."  NCLB needs to be revised.  Our current system of accountability through standardized testing is just not working.