Putting assessments to work in the classroom.(Educational standards)

The public conversation about the quality of American education evolved and intensified over the past two decades, and now real reform is being achieved. Some may want to continue arguing about standards, accountability and testing, but the real battle is over. National public policy has been set. We will have standards. We will have accountability. And assessments are going to be an important element in the equation.

ETS is ready to join with teachers and school leaders in taking the next essential step, to put assessments to use where they matter most: in the classroom. We must make much better use of tests and test results so that we can determine who's learning, who's not, and how classroom practice and professional development can be adjusted to ensure that no student is, in fact, left behind.

Unlike tests that are used for high-stakes decisions such as whether a student graduates, classroom, or "interim," assessments measure what students are learning during the course of the school year.

Do they work? Absolutely. As San Francisco's Bay Area School Reform Collaborative found, effective use of data produced by assessments of student achievement is instrumental in narrowing the achievement gap among students of widely different backgrounds.

Schools that are successful in reducing the achievement gap use assessments more frequently, and are more likely ...