As an outgrowth of the accountability requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act, districts are increasingly implementing "interim" or "benchmark" assessments. This report investigates various stakeholders' original purposes in adopting interim or benchmark assessments, ensuing implementation efforts, and actual assessment uses. We present findings from interviews with 24 district administrators and 14 principals in seven districts across two states and, where applicable, compare interview data from 30 teachers who participated in a larger study of classroom use of these assessments (Shepard, Davidson, & Bowman, 2011). District administrators often cited intentions that the assessments would be used to inform instruction. However, the realization of instructional purposes was limited by the type of information provided by predominantly multiple choice items, a lack of substantive professional development, and minimal coherence with respect to shared understandings of assessment purposes and uses across district, school, and classroom levels. Drawing from our results and other research, we provide recommendations for a successful interim or benchmark assessment system. Appended are: (1) Administrator Interview Protocol; (2) A Summary of Perie, Marion, and Gong's (2009) Framework; and (3) Substantive Codes. (Contains 5 tables and 16 footnotes.)