Despite statistical literacy being relatively new in statistics education research, it needs special attention as attempts are being made to enhance the teaching, learning and assessing of this strand. It is important that teachers are aware of the challenges of teaching and assessing of literacy. The growing importance of statistics in today’s information world and conceptions of statistical literacy are outlined and models for developing statistical literacy from research literature are considered. A four-stage framework for assessing statistical literacy from our design research is proposed. Responses to tasks used in our research are provided to explain the levels of thinking and the article concludes with some implications for practice and research.