For the past two years, the University Assessment Committee has been administering the Collegiate Learning Assessment to 100 incoming first year students and 100 graduating seniors. This standardized performance task is designed to measure students' thinking and writing abilities. In this session we will discuss the strengths and weaknesses of this assessment and our preliminary findings. Participants will have the opportunity to take one of the CLA performance tasks and engage in conversation about the complexities of assessing students' academic achievement on an institutional level.