The purpose of this handbook is to assist state, district, and school personnel in implementing the Assessment Component of the Foundation Program Assessment and Improvement System (FPAIS). The FPAIS is a comprehensive system for managing curriculum, intended to improve instruction for students. The Assessment Component includes the gathering and analysis of information for evaluation purposes. Assessments are conducted to determine the extent of student attainment of specified objectives, certify mastery of competencies, review the curriculum to determine whether intended learning is occurring, review instructional materials and approaches, and determine student readiness. Nine steps occur in planning any assessment: determine assessment needs, determine assessment parameters, obtain data collection instruments, determine data collection procedures, determine reporting requirements, determine data analysis procedures, determine data synthesis and presentation procedures, collect the data, and analyze the data. The appendix includes a listing of selected assessment resources. (Author/BW)