In this commentary, the authors have set out some areas where they see overlaps between the original position paper and the current discussion around theory and practice in language assessment, the key consideration of washback, and the need for a greater awareness of, and engagement with, the assessment literacy of policy-makers and other key decision-makers in educational contexts and beyond. They also noted some aspects where the state-of-the-art depiction of educational assessment by Baird et al was not as clearly applicable to their field: (1) the notion that a good deal of language assessment takes place for certification or screening purposes, where tasks are more appropriately related to modelling the demands of future language use; (2) the deep tradition and interest in theorizing and researching language constructs; and (3) the central place of validity and validation in the field. [This article is a commentary on Jo-Anne Baird, et al.'s "Assessment and Learning: Fields Apart" (EJ1149539).]