By Sobhi Tawil and Maya Prince

In this NORRAG Highlights contributed by Sobhi Tawil and Maya Prince from the Education Research and Foresight at UNESCO, the authors look at the impact Large-Scale Learning Assessments (LSLAs) have on policy both at the local and international levels. The authors point to the fact that while LSLAs serve a growing number of purposes, they also raise concerns about a range of unintended, and sometimes, adverse effects.

The last few decades have seen a rise in large-scale learning assessments (LSLAs) in the form of both cross-national and national standardized tests. They have been gaining currency across the world, permeating policy debates at global and national levels. Beyond more affluent contexts, a growing number of middle- and lower-income countries – frequently encouraged by multilateral and bilateral agencies – currently invest in various modalities of LSLAs. The recent adoption of Sustainable Development Goal 4 has further galvanized attention on the centrality of learning data in an unprecedented way, making LSLAs a crucial tool both to monitor learning and to guide policy action. As LSLAs continue to serve a growing number of purposes, they also raise concerns about a range of unintended, and sometimes, adverse effects. Evidence of such effects, however, is most often focused on the experience of high-income countries, and remains largely unsystematised. The promise of large-scale learning assessments: acknowledging limits to unlock opportunities (UNESCO 2019) reviews these experiences and highlights some of the limits in the design of LSLAs and the potential unintended consequences in the use of results. It argues that a fuller understanding of these concerns can help ensure that LSLAs contribute more effectively to improving learning quality and equity.

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