This monograph has grown out of a series of discussions and a six-month period of reading and reflecting on the literature which were initiated by Fritz Mosher's suggestions to the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) to examine the "standards" question. Conversations with Mosher himself and the staff of NAEP have been most…

National Assessment is a plan for a systematic, census-like survey of knowledges, skills, understandings, and attitudes designed to sample four age levels in ten different subject areas. It is an information-gathering program designed to provide both the educational community and the lay public with information about some of the direct outcomes of…