Some schools have expended considerable effort to create assessment rubrics as part of building an initial understanding of the key competencies in The New Zealand Curriculum (Ministry of Education, 2007). Key competencies can be interpreted within a relatively traditional skills-based framework, or they can be seen as a vehicle for transforming schooling to better meet students’ learning needs for the 21st century. Premature assessment decisions could prevent some schools from developing the latter understanding, but rethinking assessment within a sociocultural framework could help give powerful effect to the key competencies in the enacted curriculum.