For many people, school reform means taking the responsibility for goal setting away from teachers and assessing common student accomplishments, but the costs and benefits of this accountability strategy have not been determined. The difference between the aims of education represented by test scores, and those represented by the activities of the classroom is much greater than most educators realize. The conflict between differentiation and standardization of aims is examined on the basis of field work in arts classrooms in elementary schools. The focus is on the intellectual aims of developing a cultural knowledge base and developing imaging and other powers. A review of several studies conducted by the author and colleagues and a look at other literature in the field suggest that the difference is essentially between seeing fine arts achievement as an attained ability versus seeing it as command of an itemized inventory of knowledge, technique, and sensitivity. Current standardized tests measure achievement. These two views are so different that the panorama of achievement to which art teachers aspire cannot be represented with validity with the type of standardized achievement tests in use today. Three figures illustrate the discussion. (SLD)