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. Teachers hate them.