In 1977, the Portland School District introduced a locally developed achievement testing program for Grades 3 through 8 in reading and mathematics. In 1979, language arts tests were added. These three test series comprise the Portland Achievement Levels Testing Program. The new tests were created by district personnel to measure student achievement based on the curriculum taught in Portland Public Schools. The first step in developing these tests was to define goals of the Portland curriculum from Grades 3 through 8 in reading, math and language arts. Next, test items were developed to measure the goals. The difficulty level of each item was determined through field testing. A single curriculum scale (Grades 3-8) was subdivided into smaller segments, and short tests were developed. These short tests give scores that can be compared as if they were simply portions of one long test. One of the advantages of the testing program is that students are tested at their functional level; this helps ensure that the test will measure the students' achievement levels accurately. The Achievement Levels Tests help determine how well students are progressing toward important basic skills learning goals. (Author/GK)