On behalf of the states that participated in the 2009-10 State Collaborative on Assessment and Student Standards (SCASS) on Technical Skills Assessment, this paper addresses two significant issues facing the nation: ensuring that more students are both college and career ready and addressing the need for better and more quality data to evaluate the effectiveness of career technical education (CTE) programs. Global competition, declining student achievement, and the skills gap bring a sense of urgency to address these issues. The Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) staff believe a major focus and investment in building large-scale CTE assessments that result in nationally portable credentials is an important part of the solution. They also believe that they need better accountability data to evaluate the effectiveness of CTE and to compete better internationally. The use of multiple measures is preferred when they need both to evaluate the effectiveness of programs and student achievement.