As career development becomes established in Canadian secondary schools, the pressure increases to use performance assessments to demonstrate both the effectiveness of programs and the soundness of instructional decisions. This digest examines issues surrounding performance assessments of career development programs. Performance assessments can be implemented in different ways: student performances can be judged against a set of criteria or can be evaluated by individuals other than the students' teachers, and portfolios of student work can be used to assess their understanding. Some career development programs like "Pathways" have built in performance assessments, such as application forms, simulated interviews, and other measures. Critics of such programs claim that performance assessments are too task specific, emphasizing one area rather than evaluating skills that support a wide range of performances. While proponents of performance assessments admit that they emphasize validity over reliability, recent studies have indicated that such assessments may offer useful information. But widespread implementation of performance assessments requires that counselors undertake a number of goals. They must articulate the desired outcomes of career development, state the specific requirements of performances, develop tests of performances so that they demonstrate learning, and educate others so that everyone can work together. (RJM)