ALISON STEWART, PBS ANCHOR:

The often contentious debate about national educational standards and testing kids has taken another twist in a state considered to be a leader in education reform.

Massachusetts last week decided to reject the tests based on federal Common Core standards, tests that are still used in many other states. Instead, the state of Massachusetts will develop its own exams to measure student progress.

New York Times reporter Kate Zernike is covering this story and joins me now. And Kate, what's great about you is that you wrote for The Boston Globe for years. So, you have been covering this for a long time.