The main objective of this paper is to examine the issue of matching the school curriculum with the needs of students, without the negative effects of testing. The paper next discusses curricular incompatibilities. It is only by carefully designing, implementing, and evaluating instructional programs that the negative effects of ability grouping, student misplacement, and resegregation can be avoided. Some curricular recommendations which would facilitate the development of the match between the school curriculum and students' needs are made. For example, instructional systems must be designed to stress the a priori importance of each student learner's characteristics, when selecting the objectives, materials, procedures, and time parameters. Educational leaders must adopt the ideology of acting in the spirit of noblesse oblige, thus assuming responsibility for the maintenance of high quality education and proper community, political, and educational stability. Curriculum experiences and students must be looked at on equal terms and mutually supportive of each other. Educators must improve the quality of education where students are situated; i.e., segregated and desegregated settings. Educational leaders should not become discouraged or cynical. (RM)