On the national education front, the College Board has developed a test to assess college readiness -- in 8th graders. Described as a "low-stakes" instrument -- whatever that is -- the ReadiStep test is meant as a kind of early yardstick, to see whether middle-schoolers are on the college-prep track. The test is not, its makers protest, "a pre-pre-pre-SAT" -- but if it looks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it probably isn't a chicken...

Testing at such an early age bodes ill for late-blooming students; it smacks of tracking, which funnels students into more- or less-rigorous curricula and career tracks. While US schools tracked students well into the late 20th century (and beyond, say advocates for minority and low-income students), the theoretical American meritocracy argues against tracking in favor of individual determination -- the "if you can dream it, you can do it" ethic. (Never mind the advantages of race, class, legacies, and long-entrenched social networks.)

Our neighbors overseas unabashedly track students, with whopper exams in middle school or earlier, to determine who's college material -- and who's not. In France, students sit for cumulative exams to gain access to prestigious high schools and grands ecoles, respected institutions that gleam bright on a resume. In Germany, exams at the end of primary school determine if students will continue their education in high schools that prepares them for trade school, clerical/business school, or university.

Concerns about tracking are legitimate. But before the philosophical debate, parents and school leaders would do well to weigh the practical effect of yet another standardized assessment in the already test-dense 8th grade year. Don't the myriad other tests 8th graders take, like citywide and state exams, assess a child's academic readiness for the pre-college challenge? Can't the wizards who crunch the numbers look at the data they already gather and find a way to infer readiness? Or are the cynics right, and the College Board's new instrument is meant to generate funds -- and stoke the ever-glowing embers of parental worry?