The No Child Left Behind (NCLB) legislation spawned a plethora of standardized testing services for all the high stakes testing required by the law. We argue that one-size-fits all assessments disadvantage students who are English Language Learners, in the USA, as well as students with limited economic resources, special needs, and not reading on grade level. The SAVE Science project was developed to explore whether and how contextually driven assessments support these students demonstrate their understanding of science content in middle grades in the USA. Preliminary findings from this 6-year study suggest that situating assessment in virtual contexts does in fact help students in answering multiple choice questions correctly and also helps students better understand their own science knowledge and learning process. [For the complete proceedings, see ED557311.]