The work of the Assessment Development Laboratory (ADL) at the University of Pittsburgh (Pennsylvania) in developing an assessment for identifying accomplished teachers of English language arts to young adolescents (aged 11 to 15 years) for the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS) is reviewed. The assessment is meant to evaluate teachers' abilities to meet standards set by a committee of 12 professionals, most of whom are teachers with various areas of expertise, the Early Adolescence/English Language Arts (EA/ELA) committee. Problems encountered in the assessment development and standard setting are described, beginning with a discussion of how the generic propositions of accomplished teaching defined by the NBPTS influenced the attempt at standard setting. At least in part because of the generic nature of the developing standards, the ADL group ended up operationalizing standards in a way that differed little from the process that would have occurred if they had been given a set of general standards and the responsibility for operationalizing them. The ADL group, and not the standards committee, became responsible for selecting specific assessment tasks, identifying indicators of candidate knowledge, and identifying observable behaviors that would determine candidates' board certification. Two references are provided, and an appendix lists six EA/ELA dimensions of accomplished teaching. (SLD)