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Boards of education, schools, lower secondary school principals' associations, and other relevant organizations worked during fiscal 1993 to provide career guidance without dependence on standard score in commercially produced tests. A variety of steps were taken to improve the situation. Specifically, aggressive information campaigns were carried out to alleviate the fears of parents and students about the elimination of commercially produced tests, which had been used for many years.

Meanwhile, as part of integrated and active measures to enhance lower secondary school career guidance, efforts were made to convince parents and students that it is possible to select suitable target schools on the basis of students' performance in day-to-day scholastic activities, such as tests administered by schools, without relying on standard score in commercially produced tests. Teaching staff cooperated, under the leadership of head teachers of career guidance, in organized and effective efforts to improve career guidance, upper secondary school guides and other materials to assist with career-path decisions were prepared, and data relevant to the choice of future schools were collected.

Some people may find career guidance without the use of standard score in commercially produced tests inconvenient or disconcerting, but they should reconsider the reasons for this effort to eliminate the use of standard score in commercially produced tests. The problems that result from an approach to education and assessment based on standard score are repeatedly described in this report. The efforts made in fiscal 1993 by boards of education, lower secondary schools, and other organizations to provide career guidance without the use of commercially produced tests are expected to lead to further improvement of career guidance.

To reap the full benefit of these efforts, it is also necessary to improve systems of selecting entrants to upper secondary schools. It is hoped that all those concerned will work to achieve improvements in the areas described in chapter 3, section 3. Upper secondary education itself must also be improved. Progress at this level will depend on the measures outlined in sections 1 and 2 of chapter 3.