Title: Opinion | How Useful Are Standardized Tests? - The New York Times
Headings: How Useful Are Standardized Tests?
Opinion
Letter
How Useful Are Standardized Tests?

Content: Federal and state governments have a legitimate interest in knowing whether cohorts of students are making appropriate progress as they go through school. It’s possible to gather that information by testing less frequently and by using sampling techniques similar to those employed by the National Assessment of Educational Progress. Districts, schools and teachers all have a responsibility to measure students’ learning frequently — far more often than once a year — in order to help them grow. Standardized tests are among the measures they use. But the same ones aren’t equally useful or necessary in every school or district; different measures can provide different kinds of information, offering more or less insight into the needs of a particular student or group of children. Information about student progress, including test results, should be readily available to parents and communities. Federal and state testing can be significantly less invasive than it is and still provide accountability. There’s no reason to require that all children in a state take the same standardized exams every year. MICHAEL V. McGILL
Morris, Conn.
The writer is director of the district leadership and reform program at Bank Street College of Education and former superintendent of schools in Scarsdale, N.Y.
To the Editor: