Standardized tests often produce results that are inaccurate, inconsistent, and biased against minority, female, and low-income students. Such tests shift control and authority into the hands of the unregulated testing industry and can undermine school achievement by narrowing the curriculum, frustrating teachers, and driving students out of school. It is contended that, as a whole, standardized tests do not measure much. Current standardized multiple-choice tests are severely flawed, based on assumptions about human ability that cannot be proven, with inadequate content and construct validity. An agenda for test reform calls for the use of "authentic" or "performance-based" evaluation, using properly constructed, validated, and administered tests. Schools, test-takers, and independent researchers should have access to data needed to verify test publishers' claims about their tests. Both test developers and test users have the obligation to promote proper, reasonable, and limited use of standardized tests as one of a series of assessment mechanisms. Appendix A presents results of a survey of officials from all states and from 56 sample school districts in 38 states focusing on the use of standardized tests. Appendix B discusses "authentic evaluation." A 72-item annotated bibliography is included. (SLD)