Development of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), and the creation of the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (Smarter Balanced) and the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC), changes the pattern of accountability testing. These changes raise the question: "How should NAEP's validity and utility be maintained?" The assessments planned by the consortia may be different enough from current state assessments to raise questions as to whether NAEP can continue to play its historic role as an independent monitor or "check" on the validity of state assessments. It is also clear is that computer-based assessment is coming to K-12 education, and both consortia plan to include more varied item types than have been commonly used in the past. Computerization of NAEP is inevitable and already planned by the National Assessment Governing Board. Computerized NAEP assessments may appear more similar to future statewide assessments. Comparability of results can usually be maintained as a test makes the transition from paper-and-pencil to computerized administration, but computerization may have an effect on results for some subgroups of the population. Computerization of NAEP is best approached in the same way as other changes to NAEP assessments have been approached: A bridge study should insure the comparability of results across the transition unless an a priori decision is made to "break trend" regardless. Assessments developed by Smarter Balanced and PARCC may reduce the number of statewide tests to the low single digits, thus making linkage feasible. Associations between the results of disparate educational assessments tend to change over time, so any linkage between the NAEP scale and the consortia statewide tests will need to be maintained regularly. A singular opportunity exists in a short window of time--essentially right now--to design the data collection for linkage between the NAEP scale and the consortia assessments while the latter are under development. Two appendices present: (1) Membership in the PARCC and Smarter Balanced Consortia; and (2) Computer-Based Assessment: A Review of the Last 15 Years of Comparability Research. [For the main report, "Examining the Content and Context of the Common Core State Standards: A First Look at Implications for the National Assessment of Educational Progress," see ED545237.]