The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) and the Speech Communication Association (SCA) initiated a pilot study to test the feasibility of assessing speaking and listening skills. A pool of 56 items was developed and then field tested at four sites which represented a variety of national regions, of size and type of cities, and of racial and ethnic populations. There were significant differences between the responses of minority and nonminority students. A panel of speech communication experts hypothesized that minority students might have less specialized vocabulary knowledge, a lower tolerance for long materials perceived as boring, and less experience listening to the accents and speaking rates of white speakers. The results of the NAEP/SCA project suggest a clear need for further development and research in this area. In addition, three guidelines were developed for researchers in the area of listening ability: (1) focus on skills that are unique and central to listening, (2) use short, interesting listening stimuli, and (3) consider extraneous factors which might contribute to item bias; these suggestions are intended to aid researchers rather than act as a definitive guide. (JF) Primary type of information provided by report: Procedures (Feasibility Study).