The language assessment issues discussed in this paper are set against the backdrop of the English as an additional language (EAL) provision for students from ethnic and linguistic minority communities in the publicly funded school education system in England. We will first provide a background description of the educational response to linguistic minorities in the school system in England from a historical perspective. In the second section the discussion is focussed on the relationship between educational needs and assessment, paying particular attention to the situated affordances of formative and summative assessments in relation to the EAL provision in school. After that we will give an account of some of the key conceptual and empirical issues associated with the research and development of an EAL assessment framework for school education. In the concluding remarks we will comment on a number of theoretical, design and usability matters that have emerged from practical application.