Formative assessment policies and self-regulation theories argue that student self-assessment of their own work and processes are useful for raising academic performance and self-regulatory skills. However, research into student self-evaluation raises serious doubts about the quality of self-assessment as an assessment process and identifies conditions which must be met if students' judgments are to be useful, valid, and reliable. This paper recommends that student self-assessment should no longer be treated as an assessment, but instead as an essential competence for self-regulation. As such, we describe a potential curriculum approach that could guide teachers to appropriate use of self-assessment tools.