The idea that all curricula should reflect learnings that are common across subject areas has only recently been considered in British Columbia. Within the past year, the change in focus resulted from the British Columbia Ministry of Education's (BCME) adoption of a definition of an educated person as an ideal toward which educators should be directed and a definition of goals and attitudes for monitoring system performance. The British Columbia Learning Assessment Program--introduced in 1975 as a way of providing educators, the public, and government with information about student performance--has concentrated on language arts, mathematics, science, and social studies. Results reported to each school and district are useful in curriculum evaluation. End-of-course grade 12 examinations were reintroduced in 1983 after an absence of 10 years. Determining the impact of such examinations and assessments is a major question facing the BCME. A second major challenge is how to assess students' higher-order critical thinking skills. The issue of educational standards is closely related to the increased emphasis on monitoring students and system performance. Other issues include the design of tests and assessments and finding better ways to report test results. A true test will be whether the assessment and examination programs will be able to change quickly enough to address the issues that need to be faced. (SLD)