Performance assessment of language minority students is a complex process that requires the application of theoretically defensible procedures that are carefully designed and systematically implemented. Due to the differences between language minority students in the schools and those English-as-a-Second-Language/English-as-a-foreign-language students typically studied by language testing researchers, performance assessment in the schools must involve utilization of procedures that are more authentic, more functional, more descriptive, and more individualized than those typically recommended by second language testing researchers. This paper proposes a descriptive approach to performance assessment that is theoretically defensible and psychometrically sufficient. The characteristics necessary for successful performance assessment, the assessment process, and actual assessment techniques are discussed. Responses to the paper by J. Michael O'Malley and Cecilia Naverette are appended. (VWL)