The author's commentary focuses more on the quantitative discussion about educational assessment of the original article than on the idea of the assessment for learning, which did not raise any substantial issues. He starts by offering some general comments on the paper. He feels the authors made a number of assumptions about quantitative assessment that on the whole go unquestioned, and yet in his view are highly germane to a proper understanding. He identifies where he believes more careful consideration is needed. In the second part of his response, he writes in more detail of the role of international large scale assessment (ISLA) by exploring the issues that the authors mention, as well as others. [This article is a commentary on Jo-Anne Baird, et al.'s "Assessment and Learning: Fields Apart" (EJ1149539).]