Several years ago, the state of South Carolina turned to experts in early childhood education to address the school readiness issue for its K-2 schools. Rather than asking, "Is this child ready for school?," the state created a program assessment system that reframed the question of school readiness by asking, "Is this school ready for all children?" This approach avoided on-demand tests, and focused instead on a school's ability to meet research-based criteria shown to enhance children's growth, development, and learning--that is, their chances for school success. As a result, the state's kindergarten and 1st-grade performance-based authentic assessment instrument, which is based on the Work Sampling System, has been left intact and uncompromised. This article begins with a short history of assessment, focusing particularly on issues related to the assessment of young children and their school readiness. It then describes the Conditions of Learning assessment system and the results from its initial implementation. The authors conclude with recommendations about how this approach might be replicated to protect children from readiness assessments that expose them to inappropriate tasks that tell little of value about what children know and are able to do. (Contains 3 tables and 2 notes.)