This paper develops a critical approach towards the assumptions of social justice that underpin currently predominant assessment and accountability systems by highlighting their embeddedness in a specific model of society and education, namely a meritocratic approach where an individualistic and competitive rationale is at the core. On this basis, it aims to move the authors' previous work on assessment and social justice forward by exploring different initiatives from a variety of contexts around the world that might provide initial answers as to how a more socially just assessment system could be developed and enacted in connection to each of the dimensions of social justice, seeking patterns between these cases and discussing their connections with the functions of competence, competition, content and control in assessment. The contribution of the paper is to explore through empirical cases how an assessment and accountability system consistent with alternative views of society and merit would look like in practice, a scenario where low-stakes, contextualised, and more pedagogically relevant assessment systems seem to emerge as better means to respond to demands for social justice in education.