More and more states require students to pass large-scale tests as a condition of promotion or graduation. What are the forces that have pushed high-stakes testing to the forefront of K-12 educational policy? Are such tests the best way to gauge educational attainment? This volume, commissioned by the Civil Rights Project at Harvard University, examines the economic and educational assumptions underlying the call for high-stakes tests.

Contributors include Jay Heubert, Teachers College, Columbia University; Gary Natriello, Teachers College, Columbia University, and Aaron Pallas, Michigan State University - East Lansing; John Bishop, Cornell University, and Ferran Mane, Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona-Spain; George Madaus and Marguerite Clarke, Boston College; Robert Hauser, University of Wisconsin; Monty Neill, FairTest (Cambridge, MA) with Keith Gaylor, Harvard Graduate School of Education; Henry Levin, Stanford University; Linda McNeil, Rice University; and Angela Valenzuela, University of Texas at Austin.