No holy grail

The NGA has asked us to clarify that it doesn't view PISA as the "holy grail of international standards and assessments" ("The 2008 Brown Center Report on American Education: How Well are American Students Learning?," February 26, 2009). PISA was mentioned in its recent benchmarking report as one of several international exams that states might look toward when developing more rigorous, and more common, standards and internationally benchmarked assessments.