The HEL Focus Series brings together concise and carefully researched articles on current issues in education. Each collection provides educators, administrators, policymakers, and parents with a balanced look at research and practice in a specific area.

Traditional grading systems, an emphasis on competition, rewards, praise as a means of motivating students, and standardized achievement tests are so deeply ingrained in American education that it can be hard to imagine schools without them. Yet the evidence from research suggests that these practices are major obstacles in efforts to raise curriculum standards and to help all children benefit from them.

This collection of ten articles summarizes and interprets recent findings on the complex and interrelated issues of motivation, achievement, and testing. Parents, educators, and policymakers should find them both fascinating and useful as they grapple with questions that are anything but standardized and for which there are clearly no simple "right answers."