Collaborative Academic Testing Service, P.A. (CATS) is a professional association developed as a means of assisting private schools in administering and coordinating admissions testing for young applicants.  The immediate need for such a service in the Dallas area arose as admission directors became increasingly concerned about the overtesting of young children applying to more than one school.  Not only were children being unduly stressed by the extensive testing, admission committees wondered about the validity of test scores due to practice effects from repeated administration of tests.