On the Growing Importance of International Large-Scale Assessments

Abstract

The first chapter of this volume gives an overview of the history and the broadening role of large-scale comparative surveys in influencing policymakers around the world. Starting with early studies conducted by the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement, (IEA), interest by a variety of stakeholders has continued to grow, influencing not only the development of new methodologies to address increasingly complex questions but the richness of the data that has been collected and analyzed. This cycle of growing interests has led to an increase in the number of large-scale comparative studies of both student and adult populations and to the range of constructs that are now measured. This chapter, in addition to tracing this history, will also connect the following chapters of this volume by discussing the importance of the technology that will represent the next evolutionary step in these assessments. It also examines the challenges of assessments that need to be developed and implemented in an increasingly complex and diverse group of countries, discussing issues such as multilingual assessments in countries, partially technology-based assessments, and large variation between high- and low-performing groups, even within countries.