This issue of ETS Policy Notes (Vol. 24, No.2) provides highlights from a recent conference that examined the many educational challenges and persistent achievement gaps in academic performance experienced by African-American students in the United States. ETS, ACT, the Center for Assessment, the College Board, the Learning Policy Institute, and the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine co-convened the conference “A Focus on Educational Assessment: Advancing African-American Education Excellence” on April 3 and 4, 2018, at the Keck Center of the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, DC.