In most parts of America, teachers will soon be experiencing evaluative scrutiny far more intense than anything they've ever known. This recent ratcheting up of teacher appraisals can be traced directly to a pair of federal initiatives that have enticed educational officials in nearly every state to shape up--and also toughen up--their state's teacher-evaluation program. A cornerstone of these federally spawned teacher-evaluation programs is a stipulation that evidence of student growth must be "a significant factor" when judging a given teacher's quality. A central question flowing from these intensified evaluations is whether teachers can use classroom assessments to collect evidence of their own student growth and, if so, will such evidence be believable?