Views of academic deans at 15 private Minnesota colleges concerning assessment were surveyed. About half of the colleges experienced some but not great pressure for assessment from their external environment while the remaining had felt essentially no pressure. The deans identified obstacles to assessment, including fears about possible intrusion of assessment on teaching and learning and misuse of assessment results, and fears related to limited resources of time, money, and technology. Assessment instruments and funding appeared as areas of needed assistance. A majority of the colleges had availed themselves of the opportunity to learn more about assessment through conferences devoted entirely to assessment. Regarding the appropriate role of assessment, there were some differences between the use of assessment for accountability versus improvement and development. Although differences were not large, there was a tendency to favor assessment for improvement and development purposes over accountability. A second questionnaire was sent to institutional research personnel to determine the types of assessment information collected by the college. Appended are the questionnaires, which used some items from an American Council on Education survey. (SW)