The purpose of this study is to describe the No Child Left Behind requirements for state standards and assessment systems. It examined official documents and peer review decision letters and included interviews with state assessment directors in the Central Region to highlight the challenges states face in developing and implementing approved systems. Findings indicate that states might benefit from a summary of the requirements that could inform the development, implementation, and ongoing revision of their state assessment systems. To that end, the authors created seven detailed checklists, one for each of the required components, which summarize their understanding of the NCLB requirements for each component of a state standards and assessment system. (Contains 1 box, 2 figures, 2 tables, and 4 notes.) [This report was prepared for the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) by Regional Educational Laboratory Central administered by Mid-continent Research for Education and Learning.]