Executive Functions and Performance on High-Stakes Testing in Children From Urban Schools Deborah P. Waber Department of Psychiatry Children’s Hospital Boston, MA Emily B. Gerber Institute for Prevention Science New York University Child Study Center Viana Y. Turcios and Erin R. Wagner Department of Psychiatry Children’s Hospital Boston, MA Peter W. Forbes Clinical Research Program Children’s Hospital Boston, MA High-stakes achievement testing is a centerpiece of education reform. Children from socially disadvantaged backgrounds typically perform more poorly than their more advantaged peers. The authors evaluated 91 fifth-grade children from low-income urban schools using clinical neuropsychological tests and behavioral questionnaires and obtained fourth-grade scores on state mandated stan- dards-based testing. Goals were to determine whether executive functions are se- lectively diminished in children from poor urban environments and to evaluate to what extent integrity of executive functions is associated with test scores. Neuropsychological variables (particularly executive functions) accounted for DEVELOPMENTAL NEUROPSYCHOLOGY, 29(3), 459–477 Copyright © 2006, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc. Correspondence should be addressed to Deborah P. Waber, Department of Psychiatry, Children’s Hospital, 300 Longwood Ave., Boston, MA 02115. E-mail: deborah.waber@childrens.harvard.edu