Test-Makers' Poll Finds Parents Value Testing

By Lynn Olson

Washington

Several public-opinion polls released this summer have suggested that parents and other voters oppose using tests to make high-stakes decisions about students, such as whether they can graduate or advance to the next grade.

Now, a new poll released by the Association of American Publishers, the national trade association for the U.S. publishing industry, while not addressing the issue of high-stakes testing, suggests that parents value the information that standardized tests provide.

"A clear majority of American parents reported that standardized tests provided them with important information about their children's progress in school," said Michael H. Kean, the chairman of the test committee of the AAP and the vice president for public and governmental affairs at CTB/McGraw-Hill, one of...