20-fold increase in standardized testing coming with Gates Foundation's "Common Core":

[ProgressiveEconomist]

19. So you're using extra tests DIAGNOSTICALLY rather than just for HIGH-STAKES

decisions about student progress. That seems like an important distinction.

Testing well before the end of the school year can be helpful in pinpointing what needs to be re-taught or tutored and to whom. But do you have the resources available to act on what diagnostic testing tells you? It seems to me if you don't have resources available (Teacher aides, Saturday volunteer tutors, laptops with targeted learning software for independent use by individual students, in-school Parent Centers, etc) you can't make much use of the diagnostic data the tests give you.

But at least standardizing curricula within and across states should lessen the harmful effects of student mobility. Every time a student changes schools, her chances of eventually graduating from high school decline measurably, especially when every school district has a different curriculum.