At the heart of No Child Left Behind's accountability system is the requirement that states test nearly every public school student in grades 3-8 and in one high school grade in reading and math. The magnitude of NCLB's testing requirements, the law's demanding deadlines, insufficient federal funding, and other factors have produced an undesirable result: many states have adopted tests that can be constructed quickly and inexpensively, but that primarily measure low-level skills at the expense of synthesis, analysis, and other higher-order skills. Because of the high-stakes consequences of test scores for students and schools, the content of NCLB tests has moved the curriculum in the wrong direction, writes Toch. To correct this problem, he calls for a federal and state commitment to improving the testing infrastructure in public education.