This highly acclaimed volume in the ""Defending Public Schools"" series is now available in paperback from Teachers College Press. It is a practical, necessary addition to the work of administrators, teachers, policymakers, and parents as they negotiate the difficult path of how to best teach and educate today's children and youth. Educational standards and assessment practices are the engine driving the historic changes public schools are experiencing today. This book provides readers with the foundation for a more holistic understanding of the nature and limits of standards-based educational reforms and, in particular, the ways in which current assessment practices influence the experiences of students, teachers, administrators, and parents.This dynamic collection of essays presents an overview of the origins and development of standards-based educational reform and assessment, a description of the standards-based educational reform (SBER) movement's essential elements, and a critical analysis of the means and ends of what is perhaps the most important reform effort U.S. schools have ever experienced.