Do International Educational Assessments Help or Hinder an Open Society?
By Bryan Maddox, University of East Anglia In December 2014, an international ESRC seminar on Education Governance in International Assessments was held at the University of Edinburgh. Seven of the participants were asked to comment on video about the politics and potentials of international assessments in education and their role in educational governance. Their replies […]
The power and politics of international assessments
The power and politics of international assessments. By Sotiria Grek, University of Edinburgh. International education assessments have become the lifeblood of education governance in Europe and globally. But do we know enough about how education systems are measured against one another and the effects this measuring produces? Operating as a new form of global […]
ESRC Seminar Series
The inaugural seminar series of the Laboratory of International Assessment Studies will explore the potentials, politics and practices of international assessments in education. Funded by the UK Economic and Social Research Council, this high profile, two year series will bring academic researchers, testing agencies and the end-users of international assessments together – including policy makers, teachers, […]
Encoded in Numbers – Workshop
The Laboratory of International Assessments will run a workshop on the theme of international educational assessments on the 17th and 18th February 2015 at the University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK. This two-day workshop is intended for MA, doctoral and post-doctoral research students with interests in large-scale programmes of educational assessment (e.g. such as PISA). […]
How to Tame Monsters
Standards are rife in education, and they form the bedrock upon which comparative assessment is built. Everywhere we look, we find attempts to overlay bumpy, contoured terrains with grids of mathematical smoothness and precision. Everywhere we see attempts to tame quirky, complex entities into standardised categories. Yet a close look shows that the projects of […]