Much of the time and money devoted to testing is misspent. . . .
Test scores provide little useful information to help improve instruction and students' learning.
Because of these and other concerns about standardized tests, educators have been developing alternative methods of assessment-methods and measures that more accurately reflect the curriculum and what parents and the public want children to learn, know, and be able to do. The following is only a partial list of concerns that have been raised about standardized tests. This is the main function of norm-referenced tests . When the distribution of test scores no longer resembles the bell curve, the tests are renormed-typically about every seven years. Criterion-referenced tests are also used to sort and label students, though they are not particularly designed to do so.