This digest highlights one tool that teachers use--standardized tests--from the parent's viewpoint. The discussion covers basic features of testing and suggests questions that a parent might ask his or her child's teacher concerning such tests. Standardized tests are usually objective tests sold by commercial publishers and designed to provide a common measure of students' performance. Schools use standardized tests to evaluate individual students, school systems, and school programs in relation to their counterparts among the pool of other test takers. Standardized achievement and aptitude tests are defined and described, and their limitations are discussed briefly. Ways that parents can prepare their children for such tests are outlined, and how parents can discuss tests with teachers before and after the tests are administered is discussed. The addresses of four organizations that distribute additional information are provided. (TJH)