Thus, the best way to achieve educational improvement and student success is to pair the issue of standardized testing together with other teacher-based assessments. Standardized testing should remain a focus of the educational realm for administrative purposes, such as planning standards and curriculum. In order to determine whether a student is ready to advance, however, teachers should make recommendations to their administrations, citing evidence. By opening this recommendation process up for administrators, parents, and other concerned individuals to weigh-in, this will be the most accurate and most objective way to assess student success.

Thus, standardized tests can be a useful tool, but they are not the right tool for measuring high stakes. Instead, it is better to rely on the individuals who can assess a student's whole thinking process -- the teachers -- in order to make high stakes decisions. Combined with other methods of assessment, such as teacher-based assessment,...
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