We have reached a tipping point in the evolution of our schools when we must fundamentally re-evaluate, redefine, and redesign assessment's role in the development of effective schools. The work to be done is so crucial as to require urgent pedagogical, social, and political action.

This manifesto requires an immediate response for two reasons. First, society has changed the mission of its schools, requiring that assessment serve in important new ways that are fundamentally different from the past. Second, educators have been guided by a set of beliefs about what role assessment ought to play in schools - beliefs that have been so dominant that they have been unable to see and understand, let alone implement, new breakthroughs in our understanding of how to use assessment to promote student success.