Choices and Trade-Offs: Reply to McGaw

This paper contrasts the role and approach taken by the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) with that of the OECD in the conduct of their respective large-scale assessment programmes. It is argued that the differences in the approaches taken in the conduct of the respective assessments are not merely technical in nature but rather reflect fundamental differences in the theoretical and philosophical underpinnings of the two assessment strategies. This examination addresses the issues raised by McGaw in an earlier paper in which he challenges some aspects of the approach taken by the IEA in the Progress in Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS). It suggests that despite suggestions to the contrary that some aspects of the PISA indicators programmes are not inherently unproblematic. (Contains 1 figure and 4 tables.)