While curriculum specialists and committees often decide how mathematics is taught, it is ultimately principals who influence the extent to which these initiatives are carried out. The overall goal of this article is to provide school leaders with classroom-based research that describes one way of improving the math skills of middle school…

Examines the extent and nature of America's need to know whether the nation's educational outlook is improving, considers the contributions of the Scholastic Aptitude Test and the National Assessment of Educational Progress to the information effort, and proposes a more effective testing system to be administered by the Census Bureau. (PGD)

Because of lack of research and too much political gamesmanship, accountability's great promise may never be realized, say the authors. (Editor)

Standardized tests are not sufficient to measure the full area of school effectiveness because they encourage the rating of students on a narrow range of capabilities, the emphasis of only one set of educational goals, and the use of a uniform set of teaching methods. (JW)

Examines the differences between norm-referenced tests (standardized assessments of intelligence, aptitude, achievement, and personality) and criterion-referenced tests. Until school districts improve their potential to develop meaningful criterion-referenced tests, norm-referenced tests will be the major yardstick for measuring student…