The North Dakota Study Group on Evaluation's purpose is to share ideas about what the group believes to be a more sensible means of both documenting and assessing children's learning. The idea for the monographs that this group publishes grew out of several meetings of educators from various parts of the United States who had a common concern about the narrow accountability ethos they felt had begun to dominate schools. A major goal of the Study Group, beyond support for individual participants and programs, is to provide materials for teachers, parents, school administrators, and governmental decision-makers that might encourage re-examination of evaluation issues and perspectives about schools and schooling.

In the words of Vito Perrone, Coordinator of the North Dakota Study Group, "The intent is that these papers be taken not as final statements--a new ideology, but as working papers, written by people who are acting on, not just thinking about, these problems, whose implications need an active and considered response."