For decades, standardized reading comprehension tests have consisted of a series of passages and associated multiple-choice questions. Although widely used in and out of the classroom, there continues to be considerable disagreement regarding how or whether such tests have net value in the service of advancing educational progress in reading. This chapter begins with a review of features that characterize standardized reading assessments. In particular, we discuss how assessment designs and analytics reflect a balance of practical and measurement constraints. We then discuss how advances in the learning sciences, measurement, and electronic technologies have opened up the design space for a new generation of reading assessments. Abstracting from this review, we end by presenting some examples of prototype assessments that reflect opportunities for enhancing the value and utility of reading assessments in the future. [This manuscript is an early draft of a paper published in: D. Reed and K. Santi (Eds). "Improving reading comprehension of middle and high school students," (pp. 119-151). New York: Springer.]