Assessments matter in education. Testing is nothing new; tests have been around as long as school itself. However, over the last 15 years, state assessments have grown to be an increasingly central, and often controversial, part of schooling. As states raise their standards, it is more important than ever to ask: What is a high-quality assessment? This year, more than three million students will graduate from public high schools in the United States. For the vast majority of these students, high school cannot be the end of their education. By 2020, the number of jobs requiring post-secondary education is predicted to reach 65 percent. According to one analysis, over a lifetime, workers with a college degree earn, on average, over one million dollars more than those with only a high school diploma. Employers increasingly require employees who have the ability to creatively solve non-routine problems, think critically, and communicate clearly. Current evidence indicates that too few students leave high school prepared for post-secondary education and the world of work. Only one in four students graduate from high school having met all four of the ACT College Readiness Benchmarks--a measure of preparedness for credit-bearing university and community college courses. Employers regularly struggle to find employees with the knowledge and skills necessary to be successful. More than one in five students fail to pass the assessment required for U.S. Army enlistment. Unfortunately, achievement gaps and inequity persist across lines of race, ethnicity, socio-economic status, and disability. In response to the need to improve outcomes for all students, states around the country have taken a first step: adopting higher subject matter or content standards aligned with the demands of college and career. Yet setting these new standards does not guarantee improved student outcomes and equity; a vital next step is adopting new assessments to measure the attainment of them. This brief will help state policymakers think about adopting and implementing high quality, college and career ready assessments through the lens of a small set of policy considerations.