Prelude :assessment for the 21st century /Valerie J. Shute and Betsy Jane Becker --Human action and social groups as the natural home of assessment :thoughts on 21st century learning and assessment /James Paul Gee --Growing learning and assessment in the 21st century /King D. Beach III --Aiming at learning :assessment as the critical link /Mari Pearlman --Sharpening the aim :making strides to create an assessement culture in schools /Lynn Wicker --Using evidence centered design to think about assessments /Russell G. Almond --Thinking about assessments in a transitional time /Kris Ellington and Vincent Verges --Participatory assessment of 21st century proficiencies /Daniel T. Hickey ... ]et al.[ --Making assessment relevant to students, teachers, and schools /Joseph A. Martineau and Vincent J. Dean --Automated essay scoring in a high stakes testing environment /Mark D. Shermis --Assessing change in learner's casual understanding using sequential analysis and casual maps /Allan C. Jeong --Development and use of a tool for evaluating teacher effectiveness in grades K-12 /Alysia D. Roehrig and Eric Christesen --Epilogue :achieving quality 21st century assessment /Betsy Jane Becker and Valerie J. Shute.