The pressure to assess educational outcomes comes from a variety of national, regional, and state forces. The primary thrust of most current state initiatives is to encourage institutions to undertake their own appropriate local assessment efforts. The narrow view of assessment focuses upon the use of standardized tests to show the outcomes of learning, while the broader view suggests that effective assessment involves many measurement methods spaced over a period of time. The primary issue regarding the purpose of assessment seems to be: Is the student being tested or is the institution being tested? The favored purpose appears to be a formative one which gathers information on the quality of college programs in attaining broadly defined outcomes and promoting change to improve that quality. A secondary purpose appears to be the need to determine whether or not students have the abilities that their degrees are supposed to certify. Each speech communication department around the country will probably be faced with the assessment issue in one form or another. Administrtors and faculty members need: (1) a clear statement of anticipated outcomes; (2) to be actively involved in planning college assessment programs; and (3) to acquaint themselves with the various standardized measures which they might choose or which might be chosen for them. (Twenty-four references are attached.) (MG)