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1928	UI assistant professor of education E. F. Lindquist starts the Iowa Brain Derby, a statewide scholastic contest designed to identify academically gifted teens. Almost as soon as he had created the program, however, Lindquist decided that it emphasized the wrong issues.

1935	Lindquist developed the Iowa Every Pupil Test of Basic Skills (ITBS), still one of the nation’s premiere assessments to gauge students’ knowledge and their ability to use that knowledge creatively.

1953	Lindquist founds the Measurement Research Center, later to become NCS, and develops the Optical Mark Reader (OMR) to mechanically score tests. Before the machine, the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills hired dozens of women to hand score answer sheets each testing season. The machine took one week to score the same number of tests it took 60 women nearly six weeks to complete.

1959	ACT is established by Iowa Testing Programs and Measurement Research Corporation. E.F. Lindquist founded The American College Testing Program with co-founder Ted McCarrel, Dean of Admissions and Registrar at The University of Iowa. He designed the ACT exam to test broad competencies rather than rote memorization. In November, 75,406 high school students took the first ACT Assessment.

1965	Schools begin using standardized tests to comply with the U.S. Elementary and Secondary Education Act. That statute provided for the first major infusion of federal funds into local schools and required educators to produce test-based evidence that ESEA dollars were well spent.

1983	April 26, 1983. A blue-ribbon commission appointed by the Reagan administration released "A Nation at Risk," declaring a state of educational emergency. Test scores were falling; students were failing to stack up against overseas counterparts. "Our Nation is at risk," the report stated. "The educational foundations of our society are presently being eroded by a rising tide of mediocrity that threatens our very future as a Nation and a people."

1993	February 4, 1993. President Bill Clinton‘s State of the Union Address called for national standards, which would require testing of every fourth grader in reading and every eighth grader in math to make sure the standards are met. This marked a resurgence of the call for national testing.

1994	The 1994 reauthorization of ESEA represented a paradigm shift: No longer would the government ask states and districts to account for how each federal dollar was spent; instead, it would ask for demonstrable results for students of color and students living in poverty. Most school systems continued to perform at a level that was “good enough” on overall averages, allowing schools to hide the underperformance of some groups beneath school averages. Indeed, by the time Congress readied itself to reauthorize the law in 2000, the average reading and math skills of the nation’s African-American and Latino high school seniors were identical to those of white 8th graders.

2001	When GW Bush took office, only 11 states were in compliance with the 1994 ESEA. In less than a year, his administration entered into compliance or timeline agreements with states to ensure that they would be in compliance with a law that had never been enforced.

2002	After 27 hours of discussion, No Child Left Behind is passed, requiring schools to test students in targeted grades for reading and math skills each year. To reveal systemic gaps in learning, reporting requirements are strict. Test results must be broken down for major racial and ethnic groups, major income groups, students with disabilities, and students with limited English skills. At least 95 percent of their enrolled students must actually take the test, schools are limited in the number of alternative tests they can administer to students with disabilities or who speak English as a second language. Each group must meet or exceed the annual objectives set for them. If they don’t, schools are subject to progressively more severe sanctions.

2002–03	2002–03 the largest school systems in the United States—and prime targets for NCLB— nearly doubled their average rate of improvement in reading and math combined. The Council of Great City Schools, which represents large urban school systems, reports major test-score improvements and attributes them to NCLB.

2003	June 10, 2003. 18 months after the law was enacted--all 50 states, plus the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, had approved accountability plans in place.

2004	October 12, 2004. A Stanford University study shows that in 11 of 15 states studied, student achievement test scores have either leveled off or declined since initial growth under NCLB.

2005	Iowa Testing Programs operates on an annual budget of $3.5 million with 22 permanent employees and six faculty who split their duties with the University of Iowa Department of Education. Chicago-based Riverside Publishing distributes the test outside of Iowa, but UI maintains the copyright.

2005	In March 2005, the Coachella Valley Unified School District board decided to sue the state of California over its implementation of the No Child Left Behind Act. The district was one of 14 that were marked as a program improvement school district in 2003-04.

2005	April 13, 2005. A Northwest Evaluation Association researchers study indicates student achievement has improved since the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act was passed, but student growth has declined slightly. In fact, if change in achievement of the magnitude seen so far continues, it won't bring schools close to the requirement of 100 percent proficiency by 2014.

2005	April 17, 2005. The state Department of Education ordered seventh- and eighth-graders at Waianae Intermediate School to retake part of the Hawaii State Assessment following improper coaching of students and the violation of testing security.

2005	April 20, 2005. The National Education Association, the country’s largest teacher union, and several school districts filed suit against Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings, saying they can’t be forced to comply with aspects of No Child Left Behind that the feds aren’t paying for.

2007	No Child Left Behind requirements expand to include tests of science skills at certain grade levels.

2014	All public school children should test proficient in reading and math under NCLB.

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