This article promulgates a conceptual framework for researching various roles of educational assessment emphasised in governments' assessment policies as a basis for comparing policy-making related to national testing in primary and lower secondary education in Norway and Sweden from 2000-2017. The study analyses policy documents and expert interviews with politicians from the Ministry of Education and Research as well as government officials from the associated executive agency in each country. The official policies gave shifting emphases towards the use of national tests to (a) certify, (b) govern and/or (c) support learning and instruction. Both countries struggled to integrate formative assessment into their national testing programmes. The study illuminates (over)ambitious political demands for integrating multiple purposes into single national testing programmes, and raises questions as to whether national states' Assessment for Learning efforts can be well served in national testing programmes primarily designed for conventional governing or certification purposes.