Asserts that failure to consider carefully the purposes and uses to which standardized tests are put can place barriers in the way of equal educational opportunities for minority students. Proposes six precautions for ensuring that standardized tests can be used without endangering equal educational opportunities. (PGD)

A school and community must state their goals for students and then, avoiding the use of commerical tests, design a means of evaluation to determine if those goals have been met. (Author/JM)

Washington State reform themes include movement from input- to output-based systems, student performance standards, and certification of mastery; shift from standardized testing to performance-based measurement; blurred distinctions between grades and schooling levels; greater local control in implementing teaching, learning, and assessment…