A broad view of assessment development and design procedures portrays existing theories and methodologies as not fully representative of the knowledge, skills, and abilities students need to perform in the 21st century. Acknowledgement of these inadequacies has led to developments in assessment research attempting to meet contemporary expectations for student performance. Learning-oriented assessment (LOA) theorizes a framework of dynamic, interacting relationships influencing instruction, learning, and assessment through which assessments can be developed, designed, and validated. As a complement, scenario-based assessment (SBA), contains a suite of unique assessment development and design guidelines intended to reflect contemporary notions of education found in the cognitive and learning sciences. This analysis indicates the extent to which the LOA framework can be a theoretical support underlying the SBA development and design guidelines conceived to confront 21st century expectations for assessments.