Testing students once a year, with data reported many months later, is like using an autopsy to determine how to help a patient, says Cindy Ambrose, chief academic officer of the Horry County Schools in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. In Horry County and many other districts around the country, assessment that monitors vital signs on an ongoing…

The project described here is designed to measure the effectiveness of an intensive attempt at totally individualizing instruction to upgrade instructional programs in two elementary schools with the highest concentration of disadvantaged students in the county. The goal of the project is to achieve a system which will allow each student to…