“Tested” examines difficult choices

 Since 2002, when No Child Left Behind became law, states have spent millions of dollars giving standardized reading and math tests; one estimate puts the total cost above $5 billion through 2008. Linda Perlstein, a former Washington Post reporter, wanted to see the effects firsthand, so she spent an academic year inside a high-poverty elementary school in Annapolis, Md. The result is Tested: One American School Struggles to Make the Grade. Read an interview with Perstein, and an excerpt from her book, in USA Today.