A match was made between consensual indexes of elementary education goal priorities and the availability of published tests that held promise for their assessment. A Q sort was utilized to obtain priority ratings on 106 pre-established goals from a nationwide sample. Independently, published tests for the elementary level were sorted into the same 106 goal categories. Results of the matching techniques indicated that most goals, whether high or low in priority, are measured by few or no published tests. This failure on the part of test publishers to respond to the needs of education is seen as an important contributor to the current popularity of criterion-referenced instruments.
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