Totally agree with your last point. Teachers don’t seem to want to propose an actual, verifiable, and repeatable method for assessing the quality of their work. Test scores aren’t perfect, but they are a way of measuring what someone knows/doesn’t know. They aren’t perfect, but they are what we have.
That being said, I learned more useful math in an 8th grade class totally geared to smoking the Catholic High School Entrance Test than I learned in the following high school and 2 college math classes I took afterwards.
Nothing like a little pressure to focus the mind....
Teachers often like to sound high-minded when it comes to talking about actual results. I don't care if you're "fostering a love of learning" if the kids in your class aren't reading at grade-level. Less "fostering" and more "reading, writing and rithmetic."