Some aspects of standards-based reform have come under scrutiny.

The nature and limits of standards-based reform and assessment.

Happily, there is also encouraging news from the states that have stayed the course and continued to build rigorous, standards-based reforms.

After the publication of A Nation at Risk in 1983, educational policy began to shift towards standards-based reform.

To me, the next generation of standards-based reform is being able to use assessment as a tool to change instruction.

By now, virtually every state has developed its own version of standards-based reform.

The new federal law is designed to compel each state to develop its own coherent system of standards-based reform.

North Carolina, for example, is widely considered an exemplary state in the world of standards-based reform.

Nevertheless, King is plainly right that graduation tests raise the stakes of standards-based reform to the highest pitch.

And if a significant number of minority students are denied diplomas, the politics of standards-based reform could change in a hurry.