The National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA) is the recently introduced qualification for New Zealand senior secondary school students. Based on a mix of internal and external assessment against achievement standards, it represents a complete break away from previous norm-reference based qualifications. NCEA was first introduced in 2002 starting at Level 1, involving Year 11 students in their first year in senior secondary school education. The implementation of Level 1 NCEA related assessment changes involved a considerable mind shift in assessment practice for teachers, especially for those with no previous standards-based assessment experience. The use of achievement standards impacted not only on how teachers gathered evidence and made judgements in relation to student work, but also on the ways in which they conducted recording and reporting, and managed procedures such as reassessment and moderation. Change of this nature by necessity, at least short term, was always bound to give rise to implementation concerns and challenges. The focus of this research is on investigating geography teachers' perceptions regarding the implementation of the Level 1 NCEA related geography achievement standards. It aims to identify the factors perceived as supporting or hindering the implementation process, the likely implications of achievement standards-based assessment for teaching and learning, and the types of strategies being developed to ensure the future manageability of NCEA related assessment change.