When the Southeast Center for Teaching Quality (2003a) studied what teachers would want to tell policy makers about highly qualified teacher requirements, they summarized their findings in this quote: “Come to my classroom, and not just for a day.” (p. 2). What could be a more obvious invitation to improve and expand teacher assessment? The standardized objective tests and occasional formal observational evaluations being used to measure teacher competence today have been contested for decades as ineffective according to politicians and invalid according to researchers. While these two long-standing and useful assessment strategies are important components of an overall assessment system, neither – alone or paired – is sufficient to identify and remediate new teacher deficiencies. This article includes a series of recommendations, organized in steps, for developing an assessment approach that is task-based, standards-driven, and job-related that would serve as a major component of a comprehensive beginning teacher assessment system. These recommendations are based on a two-year effort that resulted in Florida’s Alternative Certification Program Assessment System. This system has now been adopted by about two-thirds of the Florida school districts and is beginning to be adopted by colleges of education preparing teachers through the traditional route. The design takes into account three sets of standards: the Florida requirements for program approval the NCATE requirements for accreditation, and the Standards of Educational and Psychological Testing (referred to as the Standards; AERA, APA, and NCME, 1999). These standards define the ultimate purpose of decisions about initial teacher competence: protecting the public from unqualified practitioners.