Publisher      Educational Researcher, 24
Page Numbers     25-32
Summary     This study's purpose was to examine systematically the attitudes and thinking about testing sometimes ascribed to parents. Is it the case, for example, that parents disdain the use of performance assessments as less rigorous or objective? The authors wanted to learn specifically how parents evaluate the usefulness of standardized tests compared to less formal types of information such as report cards, talking to the teacher, or seeing samples of their child's work. Do parents value different types of information when judging the quality of the school instead of learning about their own child's progress? The authors also wanted to analyze interview data in sufficient detail to understand the reasons behind parent preferences for standardized tests or performance assessments and to see if their preferences vary depending on whether the purpose of testing is for classroom instruction or district accountability purposes.