The nature of classroom assessment is changing. Teachers are being urged to rely less on traditional tests and more on innovative measurement methods, such as performance tests and portfolio assessments. This digest describes a strategy whereby student services personnel can play a leadership role in familiarizing classroom teachers and school administrators with the payoffs and perils of emerging classroom assessment methods. School counselors can play a key role in promoting better use of new assessment procedures if they acquire a reasonable degree of knowledge about such measurement procedures, then dispense that knowledge to the teachers with whom they work. More knowledgeable use of new classroom assessment strategies will lead to more accurate assessment-based inferences about students and more defensible instructional decisions by teachers. (JBJ)