The new tests, which in theory will immediately identify for teachers the concepts students have not yet learned, will require teachers to adapt classroom instruction to make use of the testing results.

What determines a student’s level of academic achievement is complex. But the simple fact is that students who enter public middle schools in New York City fall behind their peers in K–8 schools. This is true both for math and English achievement. Even more troubling, the middle-school disadvantage grows larger over the course of the middle-school years. With the transition into a middle school, students set out on a trajectory of lower achievement gains.

The company, noting the harsh economic climate, says it will offer teachers a number of different promotions this fall that will help them earn more points. Teachers who order in September will receive 10 points for every dollar spent on books as opposed to the usual minimum of one point for every dollar spent.

Value-added analysis uses the change from year to year in a student's performance on standardized test scores to estimate a teacher's effectiveness. The method is controversial, particularly with teachers unions, but has been embraced by a growing number of school districts nationwide and the Obama administration as a way to bring an objective measure to teacher evaluations.

In the second-round scoring, judges weren't sure Oklahoma had enough buy-in from local education officials, including school board presidents.