Great teachers recognize great assessments. As policy and education leaders work to make sure state tests are measuring the problem-solving, writing, and critical-thinking skills students need for success, they should convene and rely on teachers to review test quality and help answer the question: Do the questions on our state test reflect excellent instruction? Nearly every state has reworked its summative assessment over the past few years to try to better measure skills and knowledge that prepare students for success after high school. Two large groups of states collaborated to create the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) and Smarter Balanced assessments, which were designed to be more innovative and of higher quality than states could produce on their own. With so many states using PARCC and Smarter Balanced as their new state assessments, the National Network of State Teachers of the Year (NNSTOY) has been gathering teacher leaders from around the country to put these claims to the test, comparing these two new state tests against older state tests. These teachers--publicly recognized as exceptional classroom instructors--looked carefully at how well test questions reflected skills and knowledge their students should be learning and how the tests could be improved. This report gathers their main messages for administrators, policymakers, advocates, and parents about improving quality of student assessments and better engaging educators. Five lessons emerged during this case study: (1) Seeing assessment through "students' eyes" changes instruction for the better; (2) Examining state tests helps educators inform the design and use of assessment throughout the education system; (3) Fewer high-quality assessments that align with excellent instructional practices are worth the investment; (4) By contributing first-hand knowledge of students and instruction, teacher perspectives can help strengthen state--and local--assessments; and (5) More teachers should have opportunities to participate in assessment development and reviews.