This study examines how Vietnamese high school leaders interpreted and implemented policy changes of the Vietnamese National High School Examination--a nationally standardized exam that determines whether students may graduate from high school and attend post-secondary education. The research found that at the national level, the policy is highly…

Dialogue, listening, and compromise are essential elements of living in a democracy. In a highly partisan time, is it possible to reestablish common ground when it comes to how best to educate our children in and for democracy? Authors Brendan Sheran, Ashley Carey, Jack Schneider, Rebecca Woodland, and Kathryn McDermott, who are affiliated with…

Assessment is often described as the tail that wags the curriculum dog. Curriculum has featured more prominently than assessment in Irish scholarship. Drawing on relevant policy documents and interviews with senior National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA) and State Examinations Commission (SEC) officers, and relevant documentation,…

Nationwide large-scale assessments (NLSA)--an example of cross-border policy mobility--manifest a proliferating means of governing formal schooling. In the Russian context, NLSA takes the form of a compulsory graduation examination called the Unified State Examinations (USE). In this article, we explore how a mobile policy instrument of the NLSA…

Academic attainment is a core education policy priority. Wellbeing is recognized as critical for adolescent development, and is linked to academic attainment. Yet research with adolescents primarily focuses on life satisfaction or overall wellbeing, despite differentiating conceptually between two wellbeing components "feeling" good…

The COVID-19 pandemic suspended established practices that, in normal times, are seen as central to the functioning of education systems. For example, in England, school closures led to the cancellation of national examinations in 2020, and their attempted replacement with an algorithmic model. Following public outcry about what were seen as the…

This paper investigates the effect of high school graduation requirements on arrest rates with a specific focus on the number of required courses and the use of exit exams. Identifying variation comes from state-by-cohort changes in the laws governing high school graduation requirements from 1980 to 2010. Combining these law changes with arrest…

Examinable physical education (i.e. physical education as a certificate subject in a high-stakes environment) has distinctive forms of practical and theoretical knowledge, and the concept of 'integration' has been identified as a means to bridge such forms of knowledge. This paper explores how teachers interpret, translate, and enact curriculum…

This article draws upon Roland Barthes' theory of "myth" to unpack how "student progress" is conceptualised and measured in the curriculum and assessment of GCSE English in secondary schools in England. Using case studies of three Year 11 students, I critique aspects of the government's Progress 8 accountability measure, their…

Assessment systems reward certainty and thrive on predictability. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has punished our assessment systems severely for over reliance on controlled premises for our high stakes assessment, and this should compel us to re-examine the reliance on certainty and control in our assessment policies and reforms. Singapore is a…

This paper explores GCSE English re-sits in post-16 education. The re-sit policy was introduced in England and Wales to improve national literacy rates, yet persistently poor pass rates have drawn robust criticism of the policy. This article argues that traditional discourses of literacy predominate and contribute towards antagonisms between…

While there is general agreement about its importance, the construct of educational readiness is nebulous with much debate about what constitutes readiness. Readiness has been found to be a multidimensional psychological construct from a psychometric perspective. However, there is a growing awareness that this psychometric focus is lopsided, and…

Variability in education systems is a given. Variability has at once positive and negative implications for the main goal of education which is accelerating learning across diverse contexts and for all learners. In this article, we explain and employ a tight-loose framing to understand the scope for variability within an education system. A…

Large-scale externally mandated exit exams are common in many education systems. Exit exams are considered medium stakes when exam scores are blended with school-awarded marks to determine a final course grade. This study examined the effects of policy decisions regarding the weighting of exam and school-awarded marks when calculating a student's…

In summer 2021, as exams could not take place, GCSE, AS and A level grades in England were awarded by teachers, in accordance with relatively broad official guidance. This guidance stressed that grades had to be based on evidence of candidate work, though what this was, how much was needed or where/when it should come from were not tightly…