Social studies assessment for the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) should focus on students' oral and written discourse on social topics. Discourse is language produced by the student with the intention of providing a narrative, argument, explanation, or analysis. The assessment of discourse is important because: emphasis on discourse will facilitate social studies learning, this type of assessment indicates higher level thinking, and the development discourse itself is the ultimate objective in social studies education. Knowledge need not be tested first, separate from the discourse intended to clarify a problem or topic. The production of language is an integral part of learning and does not occur only after bits of knowledge are acquired. Instead, the acquisition, storage, retrieval, application, and synthesis of knowledge are all complex and interactive processes. Topics which would be suitable for testing students' ability to conduct intelligent discourse, both written and oral, include: the Constitution and Bill of Rights, slavery, and citizenship responsibilities. A reasonable response would be a 300-word essay or an oral response which could be audiotaped and transcribed. Logistical testing problems and students' lack of classroom speaking experience both present difficulties for oral assessment. Holistic and primary trait scoring predominate as forms of direct assessment of students' writing skills; both types of scoring produce reliable scores at acceptable levels of cost. The challenge in discourse analysis lies in the area of comparisons across age groups and nations. Seven sample test items are appended. (GDC)