What the articles aren't saying are the following points (and I know these because I teach next door to the Math Department Chair in my high school):
1. Giving the math teachers 10 questions from a 30 questions test in September does not help them in January. Would you be able to pass a test on a novel of which you only read a third?
2. How do you teach a more rigorous curriculum when it requires a mastery of the basics?
3. When the test was given to the math teachers prior to the testing date there were questions that were unclear, had more than one right answer, were out of the scope and sequence of the curriculum and innapropriate. When this information was passed on to the "powers that be" it was dismissed. Some higher ups believe all teachers are idiots and treat us that way. How on earth could we possibly know what's going on? We're only with the kids day in and day out, after all.
4. The people who wrote the test haven't been in a classroom in a number of years. How do they know what today's teachers are up against? The answer is they don't. They sit in their office and tell those of us on the front lines what we should be doing because the district spent my tax dollars (yes teachers pay taxes too!) on some stupid training that won't work anyway.
5. What about the "lowest common denominator" factor? Different teachers, different kids, same test. Hmmmm... the only common factor is the test! Sounds like Mr. Hanlon and his cronies are just trying to pass their screw up on to the teachers. Oh, well. We're used to it.