The symposium, "Taming the Rasch Tiger: Using Item Response Theory in Practical Educational Measurement," was organized to deemphasize the technical complexities of item response theory (IRT) and to show the audience how IRT can be used in practical educational measurement. Four papers from the symposium are summarized and comments are made on the uses of the Rasch model. The following points must be considered when using items from item pools that are scaled using the Rasch model: (1) the question of fit to the model is an empirical question to be established and not a theoretical answer to be assumed; (2) achievement test items will not easily fit the Rasch model unless the item pool is divided into a large number of independent sets, one for each specific objective; (3) the interpretation of the numbers produced by the application of the model is important and not the numbers generated; and (4) when proposing to use the Rasch model in generating test scores, recognize that one should understand the model and its implications in order to make sensible interpretations. (JAZ)