A study compared teachers' assessments of students based on alternative evaluation techniques to student assessments based on standardized tests. Teachers in seven kindergarten classrooms evaluated their students (approximately 130 each year) in each of 3 successive years according to how well they had mastered a set of criteria which the teachers felt represented the successful reader and writer at the end of kindergarten. Standardized tests were also administered to the kindergarten students. Results indicated that: (1) a significant relationship existed between teachers' assessments of students and the students' performance on the standardized test; (2) 56% of the variance between the total teacher groupings and the total test scores appeared to be due to some common factors; (3) when results differed, teachers ranked students in the next lower category 76% of the time the first year, 88% of the time the second year, and 98% of the time the third year. Follow-up interviews indicated that teachers felt more confident in their ability to make decisions about students' abilities; parents and teachers felt that teachers' evaluations provided more useful information than the standardized tests did; the principal did not agree to ban standardized tests as the teachers had requested. Findings suggest that teacher judgments, based on knowledge of their students' development and knowledge of the processes involved in reading and writing, may be a more valid means of obtaining information for instructional decisions. (One table of data and the kindergarten reading strategies checklist are included; 16 references are attached.) (RS)