The questions the Congress has framed reflect concern about the increasing reliance on tests that have a direct impact on students, including the impact of high-stakes testing on various minority communities and on children with disabilities or whose native language is not English. This study therefore focuses on tests that have high stakes for individual students, although the committee recognizes that accountability for students is related in important ways to accountability for educators, schools, and school systems. Indeed, the use of tests for accountability of educators, schools, and school districts has significant consequences for individual students, for example, by changing the quality of instruction or affecting school management and budgets. Such indirect effects of large-scale assessment are worth studying in their own right. This report is intended to apply to all schools and school systems in which tests are used for promotion, tracking, or graduation.