Richard, I have no problem with Marie Clay's standarized assessment which you discribed but it is a test which is given individually which is the big difference.
Teachers receive immediate specfic concrete information to work with.
I'm not going off on the cons of standardized testing except that tests like the Iowa, Calif., or SAT shouldn't be given before 3rd. Those tests don't help the teacher assess her students' strengths and weaknesses. They are, furthermore, only one aspect involved in analyzing how a class or school in general is progressing. Even though some states state that testing should begin with third grade children some administrators insist on starting with kindergarten. As regards your statement that children learn in different ways, I don't dispute that fact that severly learning disabled children have to have a unique approaches.