Teachers, principals, school systems, parents, and textbook publishers have been blamed for students' failure to meet tougher standards. Instead, expectations for achieving unreasonable state and Goals 2000 standards should be critically examined. Testing state legislators, school board members, administrators, and teachers might illuminate the…

Although the use of test results to demonstrate educational shortcomings is important, tests and assessments are also expected to be an instrument of reform. In fact, they are often expected to provide the primary means of creating educational reform. The minimum competency testing movement and the expansion of the use of test results for…

Noting that performance at the highest levels of achievement on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) is evidence that students have demonstrated competency over challenging subject matter and achieved the third National Educational Goal, this report presents the most up-to-date results in reading achievement for the states and…