The New Zealand Government has announced a change package in response to a recent review of the National Certificates of Educational Achievement (NCEA). In this article, Charles Darr, a chief researcher at the New Zealand Council for Educational Research, outlines several elements of standards-based assessment that can usefully inform NCEA's future development, especially in regard to the new standards being shaped. The article also explores how NCEA's revision might provide an opportunity for teachers to consider their role in ensuring the validity of assessment in their classrooms. "Perhaps the biggest assessment opportunity presented by the change package is the chance to reconsider what is at the heart of our learning programmes and to design approaches to assessment that recognise this."