Strengthening the curriculum’s learning standards, and ensuring that they are used as the key reference point for national examination and assessment development and teachers’ classroom practices, will provide the foundations to ensuring assessment supports the new student-centred vision for learning. Aligning assessment practice with the new curriculum will also mean reviewing Romania’s high-stakes national examinations, including reconsidering the use of the Grade 8 examination for tracking students into different streams. In the immediate term, there is a pressing need to mitigate the negative impact of the Grade 8 examination on student learning and equity.