While opponents blame legislators for the growing prominence of standardized tests, the public seems to love them. Author Richard Phelps, with the American Institutes for Research, looked for every public-opinion poll on the subject. Standardized tests help improve education. Phelps found an average difference of 43 percentage points between positive and negative responses.
Tests are the best way to measure student progress.
Fifty-eight percent of respondents told a 1990 CBS news poll that teacher evaluations were paramount. Tied in a distant second place were grades and tests, with 18 percent each. Teachers have qualms about standardized tests. A 1997 poll by the educational group Phi Delta Kappa International found a 36 percentage point difference between the majority, which said there was excess standardized testing, and the minority that thought there was too little. The public likes standardized tests.