ABSTRACT
Overwhelmingly passed by both houses of the U.S.Congress in late 2001, a significant federal education statute was signed into law by President George W.Bush in January 2002. The substantial bipartisan congressional support that this legislation enjoyed was surely due to the strong advocacy of test-based educational accountability previously registered by both Republican and Democratic candidates in their presidential campaigns. During the run-up to the election of 2000, both Al Gore and George W. Bush had often voiced their belief that the nation’s public schools needed some sort of rigorous accountability system that relied on an expanded use of educational tests. Although there were certainly differences between the positions of the two presidential candidates, the cornerstone of both approaches to improving our schools was a marked increase in the use of achievement tests for students.
