ABSURD was word that came to mind when I heard that law officers from Georgia knocked on Susan Ohanian's front door in rural Vermont a few months ago. They were looking for person who stole a test from Gwinnett County and then released it to Atlanta media. Now, Susan is a national education writer who vociferously opposes high-stakes tests and kind of standards that have led to them, but she denies having anything to do with purloined exam. One supposed clue that led to her is that she belonged to a Web-based discussion group that included Georgia opponents of testing. This episode stood out as most blatant excess of current testing mania - that is, until Presidential campaign just past. Who would have thought that test scores of K-12 students would become a major campaign issue or that research on test results in a single state would vie for headlines with economy, health care, and military preparedness? It made me wonder if future candidates will be chosen on basis of their kindergarten test scores! Such rampantly crazy incidents - added to misuse of tests and errors in scoring - could create an intemperate army of Alfie Kohns and other outspoken critics of standards and assessment movement. Luckily, common sense is often stronger than urge to engage in excesses, and there is reassuring evidence that former is rising to top. First, public is standing by standards and assessment movement. True, impact of that movement hasn't reached many parents directly yet, because it takes a long time for state policy to trickle down to classrooms. State accountability measures have taken shortcuts in process, but in many places full impact of higher standards is only beginning to affect practice. It's tough work, but also energizing. I am following discussions by teachers on a listserv for middle schools and have been astounded by their testimonies as to how process of examining standards and student work together has changed their practice. Some even find good things to say about state assessments, so long as colleagues are involved in creating them and tests are viewed as benchmarks rather than as final word on student performance. Refuting claims of a backlash against standards, Public Agenda, a nonpartisan policy research organization, found strong parent support for standards and testing. Parents who were aware of standards-based reforms in their districts believed their schools have been careful and reasonable in implementing standards. Moreover, parents have a balanced view about testing. If large numbers of students in their districts were to do poorly on standardized tests, those surveyed would be less likely to blame tests or students and more likely to say that the schools failed to adequately prepare students. Three-fourths believe publicizing school test scores is a good way to give a wake-up call to schools. More than half (55%) endorse spending time on test preparation, provided tests are measuring important skills and knowledge. However, 59% of parents surveyed believe that schools place too much emphasis on standardized test scores. On one important policy point - using scores from a single test for high-stakes decisions - parents' attitudes are aligned with what all research studies conclude: just don't do it. This growing consensus on proper role of assessment is second reason to be hopeful about current reforms. Researchers have been warning about misuse of tests for a long time, but they appear to have been doing so in a vacuum. State policy making has generally ignored research, and, in fact, research community was probably unprepared initially to give sound advice about assessment policy. Not anymore. With new Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing - released last year by American Educational Research Association (AERA), American Psychological Association, and National Council on Measurement in Education - there are now comprehensive standards on appropriate test use. …