Monitoring Trends in Educational Growth (MTEG), initiated in 2012, is an international assessment program especially appropriate to those countries where education systems are in rapid development. Key aims of the program are to provide policy-relevant information about learning and the factors related to it, focusing on the needs expressed by the country; and to track growth in learning over time. Developed in partnership with the Afghanistan Ministry of Education, MTEG was administered at Grade 6 in 2013, and will be administered at Grade 3 later in 2015. The assessment of reading at Grade 3 draws on the five components of reading recommended in the 2000 US NRP Report, but with a strong emphasis on listening and reading comprehension. The MTEG approach in the assessment of reading is distinguished from that of other reading assessment programs that operate in low income countries: the focus of these programs is largely, sometimes exclusively, on decoding. MTEG reading supports the Afghan national curriculum emphases, not only on the development of literacy skills, but also more broadly on promoting and strengthening children’s ability to think and reason – abilities integral to reading comprehension. The aims articulated in the official curriculum are directed at bringing about social change, reducing poverty, and creating a more stable society. This paper will outline the MTEG reading assessment framework with particular reference to its application at Grade 3, present available results, and discuss issues arising from this approach to reading assessment in fragile situations.