Using scores from a single standardized test to make student placement decisions for reading groups, advanced placement classes, magnet schools, or remedial education programs is inappropriate. Recent research shows that teachers' judgments provide as accurate an estimate of student ability as standardized test results. Using multiple measures…

For as long as there have been standardized tests that provide "objective" data about student performance, there has been an understandable, though often misguided, inclination to use that data to judge the performance of schools, teachers and students. Paralleling the rise of high-stakes statewide achievement testing in recent years, that…