Background: Measuring, assessing and managing outcomes in school practice environments is difficult due to the complex nature of school communities as well as the recent shift in service-delivery models towards tiered approaches. In tiered approaches, multiple levels of service are offered to better match students' needs. Each level of service may…

Schooling in Australia has become subject to increased processes of data-based governance. This article draws upon the insights of an experienced teacher, 'Meriam', who, having taught more than 34-years over almost a 50-year span, reflected upon the nature of such changes. Utilising theorising in relation to datafication processes and…

In an international policy environment of intensified high-stakes accountability, pupil assessment data are an invaluable commodity and critical indicator of both school and teacher effectiveness. Teachers' engagement with pupil data and the associated experiences of increased accountability are of great consequence, and highly contentious for…

A survey-based investigation of teachers' concerns was conducted the following adaptation of Sharma and Desai's 'Concerns about Integrated Education (CIE) Scale' two decades ago. The terminology was adjusted and 'integrated' became 'inclusive', and 'Special Educational Needs and/or Disability (SEND)' replaced 'disability' in a novel 'Concerns…

This contribution takes a critical perspective on digital school performance platforms (SPP), which today play a key role in US state education monitoring and accountability. Using examples from two different US state education agencies, I provide an analytical disentanglement of some key dimensions of such platforms' enactment and materiality. I…

Given the longstanding role of grades in education, and their increased use for high-stakes decisions including student mobility, admission, selection, and accountability, this paper presents a systematic review of grading policies across all 10 Canadian provinces and 3 territories. In total, 23 policies were inductively analyzed for their…

Responsive evaluation honors democratic and participatory values and intends to foster dialogues among stakeholders to include their voices and enhance mutual understandings. The question explored in this article is whether and how responsive evaluation can offer a platform for moral learning ("Bildung") in the interference zone between…

In every policy paper European Students' Union (ESU) seeks to outline their vision for a truly modern and collegial higher education and student interests. This paper provides an overview of ESU's main policies on higher education. It begins with the following sections: (1) What is higher education?; (2) Who is higher education for?; (3)…

A well-coordinated adult learning system will be essential to support the achievement of Slovenia's long-term development goals. The transformational effects of globalisation, technological progress and demographic change on life at work and outside of it amplify the importance of getting adults' skills right. OECD research shows that individuals,…

This paper explores the growing importance of measures of progress in judgements of schools' effectiveness in England, with a focus on the role of the early years (settings for children aged 2-5) in providing data for these measures. Qualitative data from a research project involving three diverse school-based and pre-compulsory early years…

Since 1992, the UK Government has published so-called "school league tables" summarising the average General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) "attainment" and "progress" made by pupils in each state-funded secondary school in England. While the headline measure of school attainment has remained the percentage…

For more than a decade, states have evaluated school performance largely through a single measure--test scores--and rated schools on whether they improved students' performance in reading or math. The idea was to focus schools' attention on the outcomes that mattered most and to focus states' attention on the schools that needed the most help in…

A recent development in educational accountability is a risk-based approach, in which intensity and frequency of school inspections vary across schools to make educational accountability more efficient and effective by enabling inspectorates to focus on organizations at risk. Characteristics relevant in predicting which schools are "at risk…

In this paper, we describe one secondary school's radical attempt to rethink the shape and purpose of education for its pupils, and its subsequent return to more traditional methods in the face of pressures of performativity and accountability. Framing our analysis within activity theory and its emphasis on contradiction as a driver for change, we…

This article synthesises findings from two systematic reviews that examined evidence of the link between large-scale assessments (LSAs) and education policy in economically developing countries and in countries of the Asia-Pacific. Analyses summarise evidence of assessment characteristics and policy goals of LSAs that influence education policy,…