In April 2019, the ReformEd team travelled to San Francisco to present the project’s ongoing work as part of the CIES conference.
The panel ‘Studying the Global Education Reform Movement through the lenses of a Policy Instruments Approach’ was chaired by Jessica Holloway, with Christen Ydesen as discussant. It focused on ‘global’ education policies through the instruments at their core, uncovering the logics of choice behind these instruments, the unexpected paths they often take, and the unequal impacts they can have.
Presentations in the panel included.
- The political sociology of policy instruments and education policy change: Toward a research agenda – Andreu Termes, UAB
- The Eclectic Production of Standardized School Assessments: Assemblage of Techniques, Rationales and Actors in the Case of Chile –Alejandra Falabella, Claudio Ramos Zincke University Alberto Hurtado
- Test-Based Accountability and School Choice in Spain: Reforming education Through Policy Instruments – Marcel Pagès Martín, UAB; Miriam Prieto, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid
- Test-based accountability as an ‘empty vessel’: the adoption, recontextualization and retention of a contested policy instrument in the Norwegian school system – Marjolein Camphuijsen, UAB; Jorunn Møller, Guri Skedsmo, University of Oslo
- The Instrumentation of Test-based Accountability in the Autonomous Dutch system – Natalie Browes, UAB: Hulya Kosar Altinyelken, University of Amsterdam
The growth of test based accountability was further considered in the panel, “Mechanisms and pathways of international influence in education policy: Recent work and ways forward.” The presentation examined the extent of the phenomenon and the nature of its spread, entitled: “How and to what extent standards, testing and accountability spread worldwide: A policy trajectory analysis of global education reforms.” The paper, by Lluís Parcerisa, Antoni Verger & Clara Fontdevila, on which the presentation is based, can be be found on the publications page of this website.
In the panel: The Dissemination and Enactment of Global Educational Reforms in Brazil: unpacking the political economy and (undesired) impacts of test-based managerial accountability, provided a more country-based perspective of the GERM and its impacts. As part of the panel, Andreu Termes presented his, and fellow ReformEd members Gerard Ferrer-Esteban & Antonina Levatino’s work on the undesired effects of TBA: “Rationale for School Gaming in Test-Based accountability systems: an analysis of perverse incentives in Brazil”
Click here to access the full CIES programme