Placement exams are high-stakes assessments that determine many students' college trajectories. More than half of entering students at community colleges are placed into developmental education in at least one subject, based primarily on scores from these assessments, yet recent research fails to find evidence that placement into remediation improves student outcomes. While this has spurred debate about the content and delivery of remedial coursework, another possibility is that the assessment process itself may be broken. In this review of the literature on community college assessment policy, we argue that the debate about remediation policy is incomplete without a fuller understanding of the role of assessment. We then examine: (1) the extent of consensus regarding the role of developmental assessment and how it is best implemented; (2) the validity of the most common assessments currently in use; and (3) emerging directions in assessment policy and practice. We conclude with a discussion of gaps in the literature and potential implications for policy and research. (Contains 1 table and 10 footnotes.)[Format changes were made to conform to ERIC guidelines.]