The author draws on scientific studies of tests and their uses to show how standardized achievement tests must play a central role in improving achievement in K-12 schools. He explains the central considerations in developing and evaluating tests and tells how tests can best be best used, covering such topics as using tests for student incentives, paying teachers for performance, and using tests in efforts to attain new state and national standards.

Herbert J. Walberg is a distinguished visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University and a project investigator at the Vanderbilt University National Center on School Choice. Renowned throughout the world for his expertise on education policy and practice, he has written and edited more than sixty-five books and has written some 350 articles on education and exceptional human accomplishments.