The purpose of this paper was three-fold: (1) to review mastery learning and criterion-based assessment; (2) to advocate extending these concepts to higher education; and (3) to invite MSERA members to join in research projects examining mastery learning in higher education. The authors used Guskey's (2001) definition of mastery learning from his paper on the educational contributions of Benjamin Bloom. The essential elements were the feedback, corrective, and enrichment process; and congruence among instructional components. The theoretical framework for this paper is presented as an annotated bibliography of mastery learning. The authors advocated extending the principles of mastery learning and criterion-referenced assessment to higher education to increase both student learning and student retention. A heuristic for creating a congruent classroom assessment with objectives and questions matching in content and cognitive level is presented in the Appendix. Appended are: (1) Heuristic for creating a classroom assessment.