This document examines the history of educational policy from both a federal and state perspective, especially in terms of standardized testing and related accountability and assessment practices, and it serves to both reflect upon and proactively think about the role assessment literacy can and should play in the education system. As educational methods and understanding changes, shouldn’t both testing and the way we talk about it change as well? To best promote the educational success of students, stakeholders like parents, teachers, administrators, and policy-makers should be thinking about education and the art of learning through the lens of assessment literacy and formative assessment practices, not through quantitative and arbitrary measures of accountability and achievement. The following paper serves as my mission statement and general educational philosophy about educating children through the viewpoint of being an assessment literate pre-service educator. The conclusions of this paper call for continued research into the ways that assessment literacy and related formative practices can shape the discussions and perceptions about standardized assessment in ways that benefit student learning above all else.