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9 Reviews Found in Testing/Student Evaluation:

	Achievement Tests For Young Children http://fairtest.org/facts/ACHIEVE.html
	“As evaluation tools for young children, achievement tests are not adequate for showing how or what students are learning, the kinds of help they need, or the quality of teaching they receive. Because they fail to measure much more than test-taking ability, they should not be used to make important educational decisions about young children.” This article provides reasons to support the criticism of this type of testing for young children, and suggests “practices and assessments that provide fuller, more in-depth pictures of children's development.”
	How Standardized Testing Damages Education http://fairtest.org/facts/howharm.htm
	This Q&A article questions the validity of using standardized tests, particularly multiple-choice tests, as the basis for educational decisions such as determining if children are ready for school, tracking them into instructional groups, diagnosing for learning disability, retardation and other handicaps, and deciding whether to promote or retain in grade. Students who are minorities or underachievers are most affected by these practices. The article suggests better ways to assess student achievement and achieve accountability.
	Readiness Tests http://fairtest.org/facts/readines.htm
	“The main reason for testing and evaluating students must be to improve student learning. Each year, however, public school students in the U.S. must take millions of standardized tests which are more harmful than helpful and which do nothing to improve the equality of instruction or learning for students.” This article questions the validity of readiness tests, used to make decisions about whether a child should be enrolled in kindergarten or first grade, which track they should be placed in, and often labels them as slow learners. Developmentally appropriate alternatives to readiness tests are suggested.
	What Should Parents Know About Standardized Testing In Schools? http://www.kidsource.com/kidsource/content/standardized.testing.html
	In addition to informative material about standardized tests, how they can and should be used, and what their limitations are, this article provides good information to parents about what questions they should ask about testing and what their privacy and due process rights are.
	Help Your Child Improve in Test-Taking http://www.ed.gov/pubs/parents/TestTaking/index.html
	This article addresses the age-old anxiety of test-taking. Written by the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Educational Research and Improvement in April 1993, it provides information on why tests are given and the anxiety that parents and children attach to testing. It gives numerous suggestions on how parents can reduce their child’s test anxiety as well as nine Do’s and Don’t’s about preparing your child to be a good test taker.
	Student Portfolios: Classroom Uses http://www.ed.gov/pubs/OR/ConsumerGuides/classuse.html
	Although this guide is not current, it does contain a well-written description of student portfolios, their pros and cons, and examples (with names and addresses) of several educators who are successfully utilizing this alternative form of evaluation.
	On Standardized Testing http://ericeece.org/pubs/digests/1991/perron91.html
	This article takes a strong against standardized testing of young children, especially those in grades K-2. The author presents a well-reasoned case that such testing does not reflect the educational progress of the students, and questions the validity of the tests and the uses of the results. Parents who have doubts about the continuing emphasis on testing of their children will learn from this information.
	What’s Wrong with Standardized Tests? http://fairtest.org/facts/whatwron.htm
	This scathing critique of standardized tests hides nothing when it asserts that they are nothing more than an archaic, culturally insensitive and developmentally inappropriate method of measuring one’s abilities and an IQ test “primarily measures knowledge of standard English and exposure to the cultural experiences of middle class whites.” The straight-forward article looks at why standardized tests are generally subjective, unreliable, inaccurate, unhelpful to teachers and specifically addresses IQ tests, multiple choice tests, and readiness or screening tests.
	The Portfolio and Its Use: Developmentally Appropriate Assessment of Young Children http://ericeece.org/pubs/digests/1992/grace92.html
	Cathy Grace with the Clearinghouse on Elementary and Early Childhood Education, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign writes this clear, detailed article about the way a student portfolio can be used to assess young children. She discusses a teacher’s use of portfolios, its ideal components, and its usefulness in parent-teacher conferences.