The standards-based educational reform initiatives of the 1990's call for assessment innovations to support high standards. To document state assessment policies and to develop policy recommendations for assessment innovations, the George Washington University Center for Excellence and Equity in Education surveyed state assessment directors in…

This document argues that current efforts to establish a national test to measure progress toward the nation's educational goals will inhibit, rather than advance, educational reform. Proponents of a national test have asked for single, primarily multiple-choice tests, or for performance assessments to measure progress toward the nation's…