As part of an international effort to develop theory and best practices for teaching languages, the U.S. military has, since the American Revolution, been a leading supporter of literacy education to improve the job performance of soldiers. One important aspect of literacy education today--which continues to be a priority for government agencies, private industry, and public school teachers--involves the development of tools to more accurately measure reading skills. This study highlights an alternative assessment framework known as immediate written recall protocols, currently being used by at least one U.S. government facility dedicated to training military linguists and known for implementing pedagogical innovations. The study explored the beliefs and assessment practices of foreign language teachers at this school regarding their use of traditional item types and immediate written recall protocols, which require students to produce written responses to summarize main ideas and to identify details in texts immediately after reading. Using a questionnaire and a follow-up procedure, this mixed-methods study found that properly trained foreign language instructors believe that immediate written recall protocols are superior to traditional item types because the alternative assessment framework can provide insight into comprehension breakdowns and thus more directly inform corrective instruction.