At a time when U.S. political and business leaders are raising concerns about the need to better nurture creativity and innovative thinking among young people, several states are exploring the development of an index that would gauge the extent to which schools provide opportunities to foster those qualities. In Massachusetts, a new state commission began meeting last fall to draft recommendations for such an index for all public schools, in response to a legislative requirement. Meanwhile, a California Senate panel last month approved a bill calling for the development of a voluntary Creative and Innovative Education Index. And Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin recently announced plans for a public-private partnership to produce the Oklahoma Innovative Index for schools, which she described as a "public measurement of the opportunities for our students to engage in innovative work." Advocates say the idea is to promote a better balance in the curriculum, as well as campus offerings before and after school, especially in the era of high-stakes testing in reading and math. The Massachusetts legislation calls for an index that would "rate every public school on teaching, encouraging, and fostering creativity in students" and be based "in part on the creative opportunities in each school." Many advocates acknowledge the challenges of creating an index that doesn't turn into a mere checklist or become viewed as punitive. Alicia A. Priest, the vice president of the Oklahoma Education Association, expressed mixed feelings about the concept. She noted concerns about using the approach to publicly measure schools, and even prefers to call the mechanism a "framework" instead of an index.