Accountability is in, and we are all the better for it. After all, we have a limited amount of time with students and we should be able to document what they are able to do and what they need to learn. But accountability can be seen as anything but friendly, given the current emphasis in the United States on high-stakes tests—almost, it seems, to the elimination of (for lack of a better phrase) “low-stakes” testing. Yet it is the analysis of the different lowstakes tests that can shed light on how to best help students, which is the purpose of this column.