Norway has seen major changes in the field of educational assessment over the past decade, following the 2001 '"PISA shock" that stimulated reform of the entire primary and secondary education systems: new outcome-based curricula with cross-disciplinary basic skills were accompanied by major revision of assessment regulations,…

This study asserts that central examinations need not necessarily be those administered by the government; they can be examinations centralized at some administrative level, but in any case, they are external to the school. This study also assessed the impact of central examinations on the functioning of the education system and students academic…

It is claimed that curriculum-based external exit examination systems (CBEEES) based on world class content standards will improve teaching and learning of core subjects. Skeptics point out that Americans already take lots of tests, but advocates claim that CBEEES have uniquely powerful incentives because of characteristics that include their real…