This paper examines education standards and the ethics of standards-based assessments. The article Fairness and Test Use: The Case of the SAT and Writing Placement for ESL Students written by Kristen di Gennaro of Columbia University takes a critical look at testing and the appropriateness of high-stakes consequences of Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) tests and the impacts such testing has on schools and ESL students in the United States. The first author seeks to promote discussion concerning the fairness of using such tests for assessing the academic ability of ESL/EFL students and using high-stakes test results for university admission and placement purposes in this paper.