Meaningful standards-based reform is about more than standards. It's about ensuring that the standards are embedded in curriculum, assessments, data and accountability systems so that all students graduate from high school ready for the real world. That means that many of the "traditional" assumptions and ways of thinking about testing and accountability must change. We need to move past the notion that testing means only large-scale multiple-choice assessments and that accountability is inherently punitive. States want—and need—guidance on how to create a next generation assessment and accountability system that moves past these divisive notions.

In an effort to spur state progress and provide guidance to states in these areas, Achieve and the Education Trust have developed a new series of publications and tools that help define the next generation of standards, assessment and accountability reforms. Our new series, Measures that Matter, is the result of a year-long process of research, tool and model development that was guided by an advisory group of state and national experts.

Measures that Matter identifies guiding principles for the development of next generation assessment, data and accountability systems including:

• Curriculum matters—States need to take responsibility for ensuring that all students have access to a quality curriculum in high school; standards are not enough.
• "Proficient" should mean "prepared"—High school tests should measure whether students are college- and career-ready, which means most states need new and better assessments. Those tests should not become "exit" exams but rather open doors for students to higher education and good jobs.
• More testing is not the goal; smarter testing is—If states add new tests, they should also take others away. Students and schools are already feeling over-tested.
• Schools should be held accountable for more than test results—While assessments should remain a central measurement tool, accountability indicators need to be expanded to reflect whether students are progressing toward, achieving and exceeding college and career readiness.
• Accountability should be more about supporting improvement than punishing failure—Too often accountability systems have been heavy on sanctions, light on supports and even lighter on positive incentives; that balance needs to change.

This new vision represents an evolution, not a revolution. We are keenly aware of how much work has gone into states' current systems of standards, assessments and accountability, and we appreciate the challenges involved in making changes to those systems. At the same time, states know there are great risks in maintaining the status quo since most state systems have not kept pace with the expectations students face when they graduate from high school and enter the world.

As they have done on common college- and career-ready standards and increased graduation requirements, states are poised to lead on creating next generation assessment and accountability systems. These new tools should prove helpful to them. We also hope they will be helpful to the Obama Administration and the U.S. Congress as they consider how the federal government can best support states in their efforts to ensure that all students succeed.

Download PDFs of the Measures that Matter Executive Summary, the full guide, and the Assessment report. For more information, go to www.achieve.org/measuresthatmatter.