You addressed the important issue of our approach to assessment and emphasis on teaching to test. I believe the concern is valid to some extent in higher education as well. Despite all findings from learning science and some new revolutionary frameworks, such as liberatory perspective, the conventional approach towards teaching and assessment has not been changed significantly in many institutions.
Lack of attention to different ways students perceive information, lack of engagement within community, classroom and beyond, lack of attention to the notion of uncertainty and important of real world cases, and finally lack of attention to the role of student as an agent in the process of learning, might be just some initial thoughts which might open the dialogue to explore the question you posed at the end.