The passing of the No Child Left Behind Initiative (Public Law 107-110) eight years ago
punctuated an era of increasing accountability for schools. What was previously a state-by-
state accountability decision became federal law. Under the law, if a state wishes to receive
Title I funding, it must assess all students in the state at appropriate grade levels in math,
reading, and science. The consequences of these assessments are significant. According to
No Child Left Behind, schools that do not demonstrate continued improvement must give …

We set out to develop an assessment instrument that could be used to measure student
learning from the KLASS experience. We sought to balance the purpose of the assessment
between measuring outcomes directly related to the KLASS experience as well as
measuring outcomes related to state and national standards. We expected to see greater
instructional sensitivity for questions directly related to the KLASS experience than for
questions related to state and national standards. Through a process of interviewing NASA …