Measuring student progress: Changes and challenges under No Child Left Behind

Abstract Evaluators face a number of challenges in using student assessment data, given varying state and federal accountability requirements. Approaches to measuring student progress and specific characteristics of state assessment systems influence how data can be used. The continuous changes to state assessment systems and data create a significant challenge for evaluators wishing to use state repositories of student achievement data over time to track changes in achievement. The authors discuss the larger questions of the validity of tests being used and the potential limitations of single measures of student achievement in using state‐collected student assessment data. © Wiley Periodicals, Inc.