Tony Alpert, chief operating officer for the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC), ponders whether to allow tablet computers--and particularly iPads--to be used for summative testing online. As Alpert points out, not only would student cheating compromise the validity of the individual student's test event, "worse yet, it could expose elements of the item bank which would be very expensive for the consortium and would compromise the validity of other students' tests." SBAC is one of the two consortia funded by the US Department of Education to manage the development of the next generation of assessments that will measure student progress in math and English and language arts. The other, the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC), covers 25 million students in 23 states and the District of Columbia. Some states participate in both organizations. Apple publicly claims that 1,000 schools--both K-12 and higher ed--now have iPad programs in place, and more are coming online every month. So both SBAC and PARCC are considering the challenges of security, usability, and content that might arise when students are taking tests on tablet devices and discussing how these might be resolved. What they decide over the next two years may forge the profile of equipment purchases in schools for years to come. As more schools invest in student iPad programs, one question still unanswered is whether or not those devices can be used for the high-stakes online tests coming in 2014.