The kinds of questions administrators, teachers, parents, the community, and children ask from under each of their hats makes educators and others aware of the information needs that people have for judging the success of schooling. Each audience, each role, asks slightly different questions, and the information needed to answer those questions is different. Therein lies the fallacy of most discussions about educational assessment--people want to answer all of those questions with one type of information. Having a variety of assessment instruments and techniques allows educators to pick and choose according to their philosophical preferences, and provides appropriate information for each of the school's different constituencies. An assessment program needs the same kind of strategic design that teachers expect to find in the teachers' planning guide for a basic text series. A single device for assessing curriculum and instruction lies in the land of mythology, not in the land of the living. (A figure listing the typical questions asked by different people and the kinds of information needed to answer those questions, and a figure representing major constituents who ask assessment questions are included.) (RS)