Preservice and beginner teachers need to build and develop summative assessment knowledge and skills in order to best gauge and measure student learning, as required by the education system. It is also beneficial if they can use the information they collect through summative assessment and grading to inform pedagogical decision making. The focus of this paper is the nature and development of novice teachers’ capabilities to use summative assessment constructively. This paper reports on a study that tracked eight teachers over an 18-month period as they completed an initial teacher education program and then started working as qualified teachers. Findings describe the features of teacher beliefs and capabilities as they moved to being able to use summative assessment and grades to inform adjustments to their teaching programs in constructive ways for the benefit of their students. Fundamental beliefs about assessment, as well as careful reflection, particularly during their early teaching experiences notably influenced their approach to using summative assessment constructively.