The major goal of this study is to review the current state of the art in teaching assessment by examining a sample of assessment systems, then to develop a "specification" for a state-of the art performance assessment system to be used for human capital management (HCM) functions. This specification could be a stimulus and guidepost for working on a coherent instructional vision and methods to assess how well actual instruction reflects the vision. The results could also help states or districts think about how they want to develop their own teaching competency model and what assessment approaches fit best with different uses of this model. To that end, the paper concludes with a first look at a "specification" for a high quality, multi-use assessment system, and a preliminary roadmap for developing such a system. (Contains 1 figure, 4 tables and 6 footnotes.)