As schools around the country gear up to administer standards-based testing, education experts are weighing the pros and cons of the new exams. Some welcome them as a quantum leap in the right direction. Others are less enthusiastic.

What is the best way to measure how well schools are performing? By testing the students By testing the teachers By testing the teachers and students By the number of students who go on to college Other

The new tests represent a second wave in the effort to raise academic standards in schools across the country. Step one -- creating and disseminating statewide standards -- is now being followed by step two: tests designed specifically to assess the skills established by the standards.

Parents, teachers, higher education professionals and business leaders helped develop these tests. Their ultimate goal? To prepare students for the real-world challenges that lie ahead. In today's job market, even entry-level positions require strong communication and writing skills, analytical thinking, and reasoning.

But will the new exams really test these skills? And if kids do poorly, should they be prevented from moving to the next grade level? On these points, educators don't see eye to eye.

Full steam ahead?
"We must proceed cautiously before we place students' minds and hearts at risk with tests of dubious quality whose meaning can be overinterpreted and whose consequences can be devastating," Howard Gardner, professor at Harvard's Graduate School of Education told The New York Times.

Massachusetts Education Commissioner David Driscoll doesn't see it that way: "I'm more pragmatic. We've got a national problem. Kids aren't achieving. We need these tests to get people's attention. I have great faith that standards-based testing will result in real academic gains."

Taking Sides
New York recently administered a new fourth-grade reading and writing test with open-ended questions that require kids to translate their thoughts into essays. "No one doubts the importance of being able to write analytically about what one has read or to compose a personal essay," says Gardner. "It is a significant advance to ask students to write freely, rather than simply to edit or critique a passage." What troubles Gardner is the temptation for teachers to "teach the test," for example, teaching a strategy for writing an essay that doesn't help children with other writing tasks.

But like them or not, tests are here to stay. They're as fundamental to school life as auditions for musicians or grueling try-outs for athletes. "Tests are given to ensure that when a person receives a certificate of competency -- whether it's a high school diploma or a plumbing certificate -- they have a specific set of skills and knowledge," William H. Guenther points out. Guenther is president of the Massachusetts Insight Education and Research Institute. "No matter what avenue students choose after high school, they will encounter similar tests with similarly rigorous questions."

The parent connection
There's no disagreement among the experts when it comes to parental involvement. "Tests alone can't do the job," says Commissioner Driscoll. "We need help from parents. We need them to ask what the schools in their community are doing to align curriculum to the new standards. And we need parents as role models: to read themselves, to turn off the TV, and to make sure kids have plenty of quiet time for homework."

"Yes, we need rigorous academic standards, says Gardner, "but we must also give youngsters models when it comes to developing the most crucial skills: love of learning, respect for peers, and good citizenship. That is what they need most to pass the test of life."