The College Board is planning to push "ReadiStep," a "pre-pre-SAT", on eighth-graders in American schools. If they succeed, it will siphon at least $10 per student from education budgets - for no good reason, and several bad ones.

We already have the PSAT for ninth graders. PSAT stands for pre-SAT. ReadiStep would be another pre-SAT administered one year earlier. Redundant and costly.

Also, local, state, and federal governments are already using and/or developing standardized tests that will serve the same function. The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), and state and local proficiency assessments already confront students with enough standardized tests, and consume enough tax dollars, without the College Board foisting another one on the system. Again: redundant.

Finally, high-stakes and much-hyped standardized tests arguably do students a disservice by making education an aversion, and causing them to be more concerned with how they score than with what they learn and discover in schools.

Tell your local, state, and federal lawmakers to say NO to ReadiStep.