Benchmark testing shuts education down

This week my school effectively shuts down education for two days to administer benchmarks. Benchmarks are tests that have been created in district to mirror the state performance tests. However, these tests are not created by professional test creators. The district does not  field test questions and teachers have been extremely vocal about how these tests have bad test items and college level reading passages. But the district proceeds because benchmarks have been mandated for all 9, 10, and 11 graders. Students scores are used as predictors for the "real" test, TAKS, in the spring. Unfortunately, the district ignores the old adage: bad data in, bad data out.