to use public money to pay for additional help for the child. This help can be provided by the public school system, by private companies, or by community organizations. The legislations goal is to have all students meet high academic standards. It provides the states with the flexibility to develop their own ways to achieve that goal. The fourth principle is to research what works. Al though that sounds very simple and obvious, the reality is that we have not done it. Perhaps ts because we ve been too busy fighting the reading wars between the advocates of phonics and the advocates of whole langua ge. The result of this obsessive struggle is that we sometimes find kids who have developed wonderful decoding skills through phonics but who aren t reading because they are not given anything interesting to read. At the other extreme are some kids who are surrounded by good literature that they cannot decode It should have become apparent by now that there is no conflict between the two approaches. Research has shown that kids need alphabetic awareness, phonetic decoding skills, and stimulating literature. We also need to learn more about how children learn mathematics science, and social studies. Our colleagues at the National research Council have been working on this, but we need to do more. The Department of Educations Office of Educational Research and Improvement is putting more of its resources into research in these areas, so that we can provide teachers with better strategies better tools The need for assessment f course, in order to figure out what works in the classroom, we need to assess student performance. Assessment is critical to making dentifying pr teachers successful. Unfortunately, we are not doing enough to assess student progress Many states test students only once in elementary school, once middle school, and once in high schoo l. That amount of testing does not provide us with enough data to understand what is happening in the schools so the new legislation requires schools to test more frequently. We should be realistic about what it will take for each of the 50 states to develop reliable tests that are carefully aligned with their goals and curricula. The schools and the private-sector companies combinedto use public money to pay for additional help for the child. This help can be provided by the public school system, by private companies, or by community organizations. The legislation's goal is to have all students meet high academic standards. It provides the states with the flexibility to develop their own ways to achieve that goal. The fourth principle is to research what works. Although that sounds very simple and obvious, the reality is that we have not done it. Perhaps it's because we've been too busy fighting the "reading wars" between the advocates of phonics and the advocates of whole language. The result of this obsessive struggle is that we sometimes find kids who have developed wonderful decoding skills through phonics but who aren't reading because they are not given anything interesting to read. At the other extreme are some kids who are surrounded by good literature that they cannot decode. It should have become apparent by now that there is no conflict between the two approaches. Research has shown that kids need alphabetic awareness, phonetic decoding skills, and stimulating literature. We also need to learn more about how children learn mathematics, science, and social studies. Our colleagues at the National Research Council have been working on this, but we need to do more. The Department of Education's Office of Educational Research and Improvement is putting more of its resources into research in these areas, so that we can provide teachers with better strategies and better tools. The need for assessment Of course, in order to figure out what works in the classroom, we need to assess student performance. Assessment is critical to making schools accountable and to identifying practices that make schools and teachers successful. Unfortunately, we are not doing enough to assess student progress. Many states test students only once in elementary school, once in middle school, and once in high school. That amount of testing does not provide us with enough data to understand what is happening in the schools, so the new legislation requires schools to test more frequently. We should be realistic about what it will take for each of the 50 states to develop reliable tests that are carefully aligned with their goals and curricula. The schools and the private-sector companies combined