diff --git a/awx/conf/settings.py b/awx/conf/settings.py
index 076340afa9..fefca9d94a 100644
--- a/awx/conf/settings.py
+++ b/awx/conf/settings.py
@@ -87,6 +87,10 @@ class SettingsWrapper(UserSettingsHolder):
         ``SettingsWrapper.initialize`` at app startup time when settings are
         parsed.
         """
+
+        # These values have to be stored via self.__dict__ in this way to get
+        # around the magic __setattr__ method on this class (which is used to
+        # store API-assigned settings in the database).
         self.__dict__['default_settings'] = default_settings
         self.__dict__['_awx_conf_settings'] = self
         self.__dict__['_awx_conf_preload_expires'] = None
diff --git a/awx/conf/tests/unit/test_registry.py b/awx/conf/tests/unit/test_registry.py
index 1516c72605..95db1c3c73 100644
--- a/awx/conf/tests/unit/test_registry.py
+++ b/awx/conf/tests/unit/test_registry.py
@@ -17,10 +17,19 @@ from awx.conf.registry import SettingsRegistry
 
 @pytest.fixture()
 def reg(request):
+    """
+    This fixture initializes an awx settings registry object and passes it as
+    an argument into the test function.
+    """
     cache = LocMemCache(str(uuid4()), {})  # make a new random cache each time
     settings = LazySettings()
     registry = SettingsRegistry(settings)
-    defaults = request.node.get_marker('defaults')
+
+    # @pytest.mark.readonly can be used to mark specific setting values as
+    # "read-only".  This is analogous to manually specifying a setting on the
+    # filesystem (e.g., in a local_settings.py in development, or in
+    # /etc/tower/conf.d/<something>.py)
+    defaults = request.node.get_marker('readonly')
     if defaults:
         settings.configure(**defaults.kwargs)
     settings._wrapped = SettingsWrapper(settings._wrapped,
@@ -271,7 +280,7 @@ def test_field_with_custom_mixin(reg):
     assert field.is_great() is True
 
 
-@pytest.mark.defaults(AWX_SOME_SETTING='DEFAULT')
+@pytest.mark.readonly(AWX_SOME_SETTING='DEFAULT')
 def test_default_value_from_settings(reg):
     reg.register(
         'AWX_SOME_SETTING',
@@ -284,7 +293,7 @@ def test_default_value_from_settings(reg):
     assert field.default == 'DEFAULT'
 
 
-@pytest.mark.defaults(AWX_SOME_SETTING='DEFAULT')
+@pytest.mark.readonly(AWX_SOME_SETTING='DEFAULT')
 def test_default_value_from_settings_with_custom_representation(reg):
     class LowercaseCharField(fields.CharField):
 
diff --git a/awx/conf/tests/unit/test_settings.py b/awx/conf/tests/unit/test_settings.py
index feb42df803..08bc1eafff 100644
--- a/awx/conf/tests/unit/test_settings.py
+++ b/awx/conf/tests/unit/test_settings.py
@@ -26,6 +26,14 @@ def apply_patches(_patches):
 
 @pytest.fixture()
 def settings(request):
+    """
+    This fixture initializes a Django settings object that wraps our
+    `awx.conf.settings.SettingsWrapper` and passes it as an argument into the
+    test function.
+
+    This mimics the work done by `awx.conf.settings.SettingsWrapper.initialize`
+    on `django.conf.settings`.
+    """
     cache = LocMemCache(str(uuid4()), {})  # make a new random cache each time
     settings = LazySettings()
     registry = SettingsRegistry(settings)