By Christina Aguilera

Standardized exam in American public education are being reformed.Over the next four years,hundreds of university professors and testing experts will work together to design new assessment system.

The new tests will be computer-based and will measure higher-order skills ignored by the multiple-choice exams used in all states， including students’ ability to read complex texts,synthesize(合成)information and do research projects．

Because the new tests will be computerized and will be administered several times throughout the school year,they can provide faster feedback(反 饋 )to teachers．If these plans work out,it’ll turn the current testing system upside down．

One group， led by Florida， will be made up of 25 states and the District of Columbia．The group was awarded$170 million．The other group,whose membership over-laps the first，has 31 states and is led by Washington．The group was given$160 million．Twelve of the 44 states are participating in both groups but are expected eventually to choose one set of tests．

The two groups are supposed to work in a friendly competition，though their plans are very similar．Both groups will produce tests that rely heavily on technology and both groups’tests will include so-called performance based tasks，designed to mirror complex，real-world situations．

In performance-based tasks，students are given a problem—they could be told,for example,to suppose they are a mayor who needs to reduce a city’s pollution and must write about how they would solve the problem．

The new tests could be useful to teachers by giving them information on what their students are learning,but it might also require some mid-course adjustments.

Over the past decade,the federal No Child Left Behind law has emphasized helping low-achieving students improve their basic reading and math by encouraging states to produce tests that measure relatively low-level skills.Although the Bush-era law is still on the books,two years of Obama administration policy have been leading schools in new directions．