This article advances an argument for retaining but revamping the grade 3 Provincial Achievement Tests (PATs). Alberta's demographic landscape is rapidly changing to include significant numbers of English language learners who are still in the early stages of developing English language proficiency at grade 3. Online tools are used to generate vocabulary profiles from exemplars of three standards of achievement: excellent, proficient and satisfactory. These are compared along various indices of vocabulary diversity. The findings provide striking evidence for rethinking the place of vocabulary in the overall assessment framework of the PATs, and in turn, for emphasizing the need for direct and explicit vocabulary instruction from the earliest of formal schooling experiences for immigrant children and the children of immigrants.