Conceptual Understanding

We are supposed to be teaching for conceptual understanding.

Teaching for conceptual understanding will cover the discreet materials that are required for standardized tests and then go beyond.

Supposedly not knowing the requirements for becoming a president but yet knowing how to form an opinion with the presidential candidates based on their platforms would be successful conceptual understanding.

A politician took a standardized test and failed it miserably. If the standardized test was on the conceptual understanding, would he have been able to pass it?

If the discreet materials are what we are testing for in standardized tests, but not what we want students to retain due to conceptual understanding, then why are we testing over those materials in the first place?

OUR EDUCATION SYSTEM DOES NOT MAKE SENSE