A study was conducted concerning the reduced and limited curricula which tests may represent. Observations were made at 18 different elementary and middle school classrooms in four school districts in central Pennsylvania during the language arts instructional period. All of the teachers were involved in promoting a holistic approach to literacy. Through hours of observation and conversations with the teachers, several themes were recurring: high levels of performance displayed by low ability learners; inadequacies of report cards; and teachers' frustrations about reducing children's learning to a letter grade. A major theme with teachers was how to educate parents and the public about the learning that was occurring in the classroom. Results indicated that teachers were effectively mediating learning activities so their students could become actively involved and owners of their learning. These rich curricula are undocumented because they do not explicitly inform the general public about the highly skilled, sophisticated performances and growth students display through the daily activities they perform. They are unstandardized because there is no handbook with a script for the teachers to repeat back to their students. The main reason for a lack of public knowledge is there is no formal outlet to report learners' performance and learning growth, except grades and test scores which do not capture the richness of the curricula. (Twenty references are attached.) (MG)