| authentic assessment | A type of evaluation that represents actual performance, encourages students to reflect on their own work, and is integrated into the student's whole learning process. Such tests usually require that students synthesize knowledge from different areas and use that knowledge actively.
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| content standards | The knowledge, skills, and dispositions that students should master in each subject. These standards are often linked to broader themes and sometimes to testing programs.
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| cultural literacy | Knowledge of the people, places, events, and concepts central to the standard literate culture.
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| multicultural education | Educational policies and practices that not only recognize but also affirm human differences and similarities associated with gender, race, ethnicity, nationality, disability, and class.
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| opportunity to learn standards | (also called delivery standards) These standards attempt to recognize and respond to individual differences and circumstances. Poorer students learning in schools with fewer resources should receive more appropriate and adequate learning opportunities, and if some students need more time to take tests, additional time should be provided.
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| performance standards | Statements that describe what teachers or students should be able to do, and how well they should do it.
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| readability formulas | Formulas that use objective, quantitative measures to determine the reading level of textbooks.
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| secular humanism | The belief that people can live ethically without faith in a supernatural or supreme being. Some critics have alleged that secular humanism is a form of religion and that publishers are promoting secular humanism in their books.
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| self-censorship | (also called stealth censorship) In order to avoid possible problems and parental complaints, some educators quietly remove a book from a library shelf or a course of study. Teachers practice the same sort of self-censorship when they choose not to teach a topic or not to discuss a difficult issue.
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| textbook adoption states | States, most often those in the South and West, that have a formal process for assessing, choosing, and approving textbooks for school use.
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| adequate yearly progress | Under the No Child Left Behind Act, each state establishes annual criteria to determine school district and school achievement. Schools that fail to meet the AYP criteria (often determined by standardized tests) are held accountable and may be closed.
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