The chapters in this collection contribute to the debate about the value and usefulness of radically different kinds of assessments in the U.S. educational system by considering and expanding on the theoretical underpinnings of reports and speculation. The chapters are: (1) "Assessment Reform: Promises and Challenges" (Nidhi Khattri and David Sweet); (2) "Performance Assessment and the Multiple Functions of Educational Measurement" (Daniel P. Resnick and Lauren B. Resnick); (3) "Evaluating Progress with Alternative Assessments: A Model for Title I" (Mark Wilson and Raymond J. Adams); (4) "Extended Assessment Tasks: Purposes, Definitions, Scoring, and Accuracy" (David E. Wiley and Edward T. Haertel); (5) "Linking Assessments" (Robert L. Linn); (6) "Performance Assessment: Examining the Costs" (Roy Hardy); (7) "Conceptualizing the Costs of Large-scale Pupil Performance Assessment" (David H. Monk); (8) "Change Has Changed: Implications for Implementation of Assessments from the Organizational Change Literature" (Suzanne M. Stiegelbauer); (9) "Arizona's Educational Reform: Creating and Capitalizing on the Conditions for Policy Development and Implementation" (Lois Brown Easton and Paul H. Koehler); and (10) "Performance Assessment and Equity" (Eva L. Baker and Harold F. O'Neil, Jr.). Each chapter contains references. (SLD)