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The present analysis examined the relationship between PISA results and their influence on policy development within a select group of European nations which included Estonia, Italy, France, and Finland. These countries reflect four distinct outcomes in relation to PISA results: (1) high achievement and high equity (Estonia); (2) stagnant performance (Italy); (3) low achievement and low equity (France); and (4) a negative equity trend (Finland). The discussion argues these outcomes can be associated with cases of policy inertia, avoidance, and refraction.

Immigrant students consistently demonstrate a performance disadvantage when one considers their achievement against non-immigrant peers. These disadvantages vary across international jurisdictions, suggesting that education system level policies or programs may help to ameliorate or worsen these differences. Our work provides a synthesis of trends from education policies and programs that appear to be associated with more favourable immigrant student achievement outcomes, highlighting three international jurisdictions: Canada, New Zealand, and England. This comparative analysis identifies key features of these education systems that have been associated with the success of their immigrant students. We conclude with a critical view on simple policy borrowing and call for contextually responsive adaptation of promising policies and programs within distinct education systems.

The synergy, or lack thereof, between large‐scale and classroom assessment has been fiercely debated in both academic and policy spheres for decades around the world. This paper seeks to explicate how different countries are utilizing large‐scale testing and test results at the classroom level. Through country profiles, this paper analyzes contemporary developments on the tensions and synergies between large‐scale assessment and classroom teaching, learning, and assessment observed across seven international jurisdictions: United States, Canada, Australia, England, Germany, Finland, and Singapore. The paper concludes with an analysis of international trends leading to a synthesis of root causes contributing to the current limited uptake of large‐scale assessment results at classroom levels.

This chapter takes the results of all previous chapters into account and provides a cross-national evaluation of educational policies designed to reduce socioeconomic inequalities among pupils. By stocktaking on this Volume’s choices for examining socioeconomic inequality and student outcomes, the chapter first reviews the most recent trends of socioeconomic inequality in the nine countries covered. Second, the chapter assesses which national policies appear to have been successful for reducing disadvantaged students’ outcomes, by relating these trends with recent and preceding education policies. In order to cover most of the education policies featured in the single country chapters, this discussion of policies is structured along three dimensions: (a) school autonomy versus centralization; (b) tracking versus comprehensive schooling; and (c) instruction time and curricula. Third, the chapter concludes by addressing existing research caveats and future research directions from a cross-national perspective.

The European Union – comprising 28 member states with individual sovereignty in the formation and implementation of education policy – has developed research and communication strategies to facilitate the exchange of best practices, gathering and dissemination of education statistics and, perhaps most importantly, advice and support for national policy reform. Additionally, shared programs have been implemented across the union, which have led to the formation of one of the largest transnational policy networks in the world. This paper examines the influence of international education surveys administered by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, outlining the key characteristics of the surveys and the most salient findings. We discuss the contribution of emerging European Union governance for the quality of education while also looking at the challenges ahead. These challenges include developing assessments to include value added, revising assessments to include broader skills and providing assessment feedback to teachers within an EU context in which national and Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development assessments become complementary, rather than overlapping, survey measures.

This paper discusses the emergence of assessment for learning (AfL) across the globe with particular attention given to Western educational jurisdictions. Authors from Australia, Canada, Ireland, Israel, New Zealand, Norway, and the USA explain the genesis of AfL, its evolution and impact on school systems, and discuss current trends in policy directions for AfL within their respective countries. The authors also discuss the implications of these various shifts and the ongoing tensions that exist between A fL and summative forms of assessment within national policy initiatives.

Based on the divers viewpoints provided in this volume, this final chapter discusses the benefits of an interdisciplinary dialogue between OECD and stakeholders involved in educational governance. Furthermore, the chapter also discusses the opportunities and constraints associated with the utilization of PISA as a policy instrument around the world. This chapter concludes with a discussion of the future role of PISA in transnational policy development, including those regions of the world that were not represented within this edited volume. The conclusion also proposes future areas of inquiry and specific programs of research that examine the influence of PISA on global educational governance.

This paper examines policy responses across Canada to international student assessment programs such as the program for international student assessment, trends in international mathematics and science study, and progress in international reading and literacy study. Literature reviewed included refereed and non-refereed journal articles, proceedings from academic conferences, ministry of education research reports and policy documents, books and other monographs, achievement data from various statistical databases, critiques published in newspapers, and other widely disseminated research reports. The comparative analysis suggests a variety of factors influence the nature and degree of policy responses to international comparison testing within various Canadian provinces.

This study explored elementary and secondary school administrators' perspectives on their attempts to build assessment literacy-an understanding of the principles and practices of sound assessment. Using a semistructured interview format, administrators were asked to share successes and challenges with various types of assessment. Transcripts revealed an imbalance between formative and summative assessment practices and a variety of attitudinal, structural and resource factors that constrain administrators' ability to foster changes that align with recent assessment research. The implications of the findings are discussed in relation to instructional leadership, capacity building and educational reform.

This article describes the Canadian education system and provincial/territorial, national, and international large‐scale assessment (LSA) programmes that currently operate within this large multicultural country. We highlight the policy implications of LSA programmes within Canada’s 10 provinces and three northern territories, and how the country balances international pressures with the demand for independence in the educational practices of its distinct provinces and territories. The discussion outlines how the systematic use of performance information is institutionalised through two kinds of accountability, ethical‐professional and economic‐bureaucratic accountability.

Education reform is not a new phenomenon. Every society, from the early classical period to the current modern era, has debated the importance of different types of contents and experiences that lead to an educated and well-adjusted child. It is impossible to do justice to this wide range of human history within this book. This introductory chapter merely attempts to capture some of the most salient changes that have influenced educational reform since the introduction of compulsory schooling, particularly as they relate to the genesis of educational standards and its corresponding influence on school leadership.

It has been fascinating to consider standards, accountability, assessment, and leadership in education through the lenses of a broad and diverse selection of countries. It is not our intention to summarize each standards-based reform model that was previously discussed. Rather the ensuing discussion merely highlights some of the notable trends and provides the reader with a sense of the many faces of standards-based reform, accountability, and student assessment, and draws out some implications for learning for school leaders. This chapter concludes with suggestions for future inquiry.

This chapter will discuss how the traditional role of principal, as the lead learner of schools, is both challenged and complemented by the cultural and epistemic values of Aboriginal communities in publicly funded school across Ontario in light of the Ministry of Education's Ontario First Nation, Metis, and Inuit Framework (2007). Leadership, in this context, is redefined to create a positive working environment. The authors also address the social impact of large-scale assessment programs on the standards for Aboriginal students, including the respective challenges for principals and teachers in Ontario schools.