Paul E. Barton, education writer and consultant, is the former Director of the Policy Information Center at Educational Testing Service. He has served as an Associate Director of the National Assessment of Educational Progress, President of the National Institute for Work and Learning, Member of the U.S. Secretary of Labor’s Policy Planning Staff, and staff member in the Executive Office of the President (in what is now the Office of Management and Budget). His publications are in the areas of education policy, standards-based reform, test-based accountability, educational and employment achievement gaps, the role of the family, education-work relationships, prison education, education indicators, high school and college completion rates, and the education needs of the economy.