This article explores issues relating to the development of the Standards for Teachers of English Language and Literacy in Australia (STELLA). STELLA is the product of work by members of the Australian Association for the Teaching of English (AATE) and the Australian Literacy Educators' Association (ALEA), the two key professional bodies in Australia representing secondary English teachers and primary school literacy teachers respectively. However, the question remains as to the extent to which English literacy teachers around Australia can meaningfully identify with these standards. This article asks whether professional standards can provide a framework for practitioner inquiry and the renewal of the English teaching profession in contradistinction to managerial pressures to impose standards for regulatory purposes. The article was originally published in "English in Education, the Journal of the National Association for the Teaching of English" (NATE--UK), Volume 40, Number 1, Spring 2006, a special issue featuring papers presented at "A Project for English", a forum held at the Institute of Education, London, in June 2005. In a postscript, Brenton Doecke reflects on policy developments in the intervening period and revisits the question of STELLA's continuing relevance to teachers of English in Australia.