In this project, researchers developed and piloted key components of a multi-year evaluation to assess the impact of standards-based reform at the local level on both schools and students. After summarizing the literature on evaluation of systemic standards-based reform, staff developed a conceptual framework and methodologies for a national evaluation of standards-based reform at the state and district levels. A scale for assessing implementation was developed and is recommended as a tool to be used in conducting the evaluation, and for use in ongoing monitoring by the U.S. Department of Education. This scale included quantified benchmarks of state-, district-, and school-level progress along a set of parameters that emerged from the literature review.