Paul Reville asks how can we prepare children for life as citizens, workers, and responsible adults in the 21st Century. Educators, parents, policy makers and legislators seem overwhelmed by the number of challenges facing public education today, and by the enormous costs, financial and social, of addressing those challenges. Behind the buzz words, platitudes and anecdotes lies the stark fact that education in the United States is in search of a new mission and in need of a redefined contract with the society that supports it. In the absence of a new social contract between society and schools, test scores have become the generally accepted measure of achievement. Reville focuses on appropriate methods of assessing educational success, asking what role high stakes testing should play in our public schools and what alternatives might assure school accountability.
