, especially those at the state level. The goal of the assessments is clear: Improve the education and achievement of students. My concern is the reliability and validity of the means by which government agencies across the United States believe they are "improving educational achievement. "After reviewing statewide assessment procedures, I realize that the technical difficulties in statewide assessment of social studies instruction are overlooked for the sake of quickly getting marginally acceptable test results, which pleases politicians. I also discuss the often-ignored equity issues of statewide assessment and suggest alternatives that can lead to genuine improvements in education. Before I consider the major issue of statewide assessment in social studies, let me review some key definitions of assessment measures. I have grouped them in pairs: formative and summative assessments, and reliability and validity. Formative assessment provides feedback to the learner through which he or she can improve his or her learning capacity. To be effective, tests and examinations must be