Recent months have brought an ever-louder drumbeat in support of state-level participation in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), with a weaker chorus calling for states to participate in the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS). Despite the growing infatuation with international comparisons of student performance and the illuminating feedback they can provide on how young Americans are doing relative to students in other countries, current international assessments cannot generate a great deal of reliable policy advice. In other words, they're better at showing how children's academic performance (in certain subjects) compares with that of their overseas agemates than at guiding Americans toward stronger U.S. schools. As states consider funding and administering international assessments for themselves, such facts must be kept in mind and key questions addressed. Among them are, what will states get as a result of participation? How much will it cost? Are there easier and cheaper ways of obtaining the desired information? In this article, the author talks about the international PISA test and presents a comparison of PISA and TIMSS, the two most prominent international assessments. The author contends that states should think twice before paying for more testing and find other ways to compare students to their global peers. (Contains 1 figure.)