The northwest evaluation association develops the tests taken by more than five million students in five thousand school and districts.  The new testing group is becoming very successful. NWEA is a non-profit group that recently opened new offices in Portland. It has become a very successful testing program because they focus on student learning rather than testing and tests should not be standardized, and measure the progress they have made rather than a compared to a grade level result. “For us, it's about growth, not grades. It’s about being in a position to predict the future academic growth of a child, and being in a position to find strengths and weaknesses and challenges that the child is going through. So that we can all work on those; including the child, him or herself." NWEA President Matt Chapman says testing has become much more important in schools, because cash-strapped districts need to decide if a curriculum is working - or not.