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Standardized testing has many purposes for the state and for the educational system, none of which serve as authentic assessment for students with special needs. Standardized tests were intended to monitor and trace student progress in ways that help the state monitor the overall achievement of students. Tests are also used by teachers and parents to help determine the educational needs of individual students. These tests can even be helpful for the typical student as they prepare him or her for a world of testing. College applications, job applications, job promotions, and many other avenues of professional life involve a degree of standardized testing. Not enough students with special needs enter professions requiring standardized testing to make is a valuable part of their curriculum. Students with special needs fail in many ways in our school system. When students with special needs are given standardized tests, they are being set up to fail in additional ways. The tests are often too difficult and laborious for them to succeed. A better use of instructional time would be to develop the basic skills these children need to survive. Test taking skills are not practical skills for a majority of students with special needs. This begs the question, how will accountability be monitored if not by standardized testing? In place of standardized testing, authentic assessments such as portfolios of student work, teacher observations, and student progress reports should be used in conjunction with the Individualized Educational Plan (IEP) to monitor and track student progress. The law requires that each child be given appropriate educationtesting and fill in the bubble practice time is not appropriate education for many students with special needs.