This fifth issue of "Education for All, Status and Trends," examines the reasons for the growing global interest in educational measurement, lays out some of the central findings of the movement, and then takes up the all-important question of how assessment of student outcomes can be put to the service of promoting quality education for all children. Research growing from the 1990 World Conference on Education for All has shown how the experience of developed and developing countries in carrying out national assessments has led to a body of general principles about how best to organize such measurement exercises and how to make the most effective use of the data they generate. Following an introduction, these principles are developed through the following sections: (1) "How Countries Measure Student Achievement"; (2) "How Measurement Can Improve Teaching and Learning"; (3) "Recent Research on the Quality of Education"; (4) "Broad Findings of Recent Research"; (5) "Factors That Contribute to Achievement"; (6) "How Countries Use Assessment To Improve Student Learning"; and (7) "Issues of Measurement." An appendix contains five statistical tables for specific world areas. (Contains 27 figures.) (SLD)