Testing criteria and Gates Reading Test

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You are a member of a committee in your district. What criteria would you use to select a formal assessment to be used district wide?

The first consideration is that your chosen assessment must assess what the test is supposed to assess. A formal assessment to be used district-wide needs to be one authenticated for both validity and reliability by several research studies. It also needs to be an assessment that is culturally sensitive, with little cultural bias. This is important because your assessment will be used across a wide range of people in the district. It is usually helpful if the assessment has been in use already - one designed and validated by a company whose specialty assessment instruments is, instead of an in-house designed test. This will help thwart any later claims of bias or inequality, if the chosen assessment has already been proven, and is in wide-spread use. It would be helpful if the assessment is relatively inexpensive to procure and simple to administer to your subject population. You may choose to use this assessment district-wide, but only with one age group or grade level, or it may be an assessment series for various ages and grade levels. That consideration, the target population for testing, will impact what sort of assessment your committee chooses, as well. Next, what the assessment is testing (what subjects or criteria) needs to be considered. Some assessments are specifically for reading, or math skills. What are you assessing? And, do your results need to be in formats that allow for comparison to a larger population (norm-referenced tests), or is it to be an assessment tied to performance standards (criterion-referenced tests)? All of these factors need to be considered in making the final choice. (265 words)

I also need help with listing the pro's and cons for Gates MacGinitie Reading Tests.
http://www.ehow.com/reading-comprehension-tests/ portal site, especially article: http://www.ehow.com/info_8262590_pros-cons-proficiency-testing.html
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