Sample-based, multi-level NLSA with monitoring purposes in place since 2000.
The results from national assessments began to have repercussions for teachers' careers in 2013, when the Professional Teaching Services General Law was adopted.
Similarly, the creation of the National Institute for Educational Assessment and Evaluation, which became an independent agency in 2013, has contributed to institutionalize a culture of accountability through external evaluations.
Firmly-established tradition of end-of-cycle examinations.
Tests are generally high stakes for students – used for tracking and certification purposes.
In 2007, one of the examination tests was exceptionally used for monitoring purposes.
NLSA with monitoring purposes administered one single time in 2011.
The test relied on a sample of students and provided a system-wide diagnosis.
The production of the report was outsourced to the consultancy agency SOFRECO with the assistance of the French cooperation agency (AFD).
NLSA with monitoring purposes administered one single time back in 1999.
Irregular engagement with the Monitoring Learning Achievement project (UNESCO-UNICEF).
Well-established tradition of national examinations at the end of basic education.
Sample-based, multi-level NLSA with monitoring purposes in place since 2000.
Irregular cycle of administration and low levels of institutionalization – by contrast with an established system of national end-of-phase examinations.
Financial support from development partners – most prominently, USAID.
Census-based NLSA with monitoring purposes administered annually.
Designed as a sample-based assessment. First piloted in 2001, being deployed nationwide in 2008.
Results made publicly available at the national, regional, cluster, and school levels.
Sample-based NLSA administered on a regular basis since 2005
The test relies essentially on external funding - most notably, USAID.
Different NSLAs piloted and trialed since the late 90s, usually with monitoring and/or diagnostic purposes.
Sample-based NLSA with monitoring purposes in place since 1999, but irregularly administered.
Recent experimentation with a sample-based NLSA informing the allocation of a salary bonus for teachers.
The project enjoys technical and financial support from the World Bank.
Sample-based NLSA administered for the first time in 2009/10, with a second iteration in 2016.
Last edition enjoyed financial support from the Global Partnership for Education.
Oriented at providing a system-wide diagnosis and as a complement to a long-standing system of national examinations.
Sample-based NLSA with monitoring purposes in place since 2003.
Irregular cycle of administrations – with at least 7 iterations since its establishment: 2003, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2012 and 2014.
Administered in collaboration with the Examinations Council of Lesotho, a nonprofit making examination and qualification agency established in 1986.
A sample-based NLSA was administered in 2012 as a one-off exercise with monitoring purposes.
Financial support provided by UNICEF.
Explicitly inspired by the Programme for the Analysis of Education Systems (PASEC) instruments and methodological approach.
NLSA-system administered in 2012 with the support of UNICEF.
Expected to be administered on a triennial basis – although there is no indication of further iterations after the 2012 edition.
Designed as low-stakes – results enjoy limited circulation.
Sample-based NLSA with monitoring purposes administered for the first time in 2005.
Irregular cycle of implementation, and apparently discontinued in 2014.
Support and assistance provided by development partners – most notably, the World Bank and USAID.
Sample-based NLSA administered for the first time in 2013, with a second iteration in 2016 and a third one planned for 2019.
The NLSA benefits from the financial support of a pooled fund of donors and the technical advice of the Production Centre for the Support of Distance Learning at the Federal University of Minas Gerais in Brazil.
Previous experimentation with nationwide assessment during the 2000s (in years 2000, 2006 and 2009).
Sample-based NLSA with system-wide monitoring purposes initiated in 2008 and resumed in 2016.
Well-established tradition of high-stakes examinations administered to students at ISCED 1 and ISCED 2.
Census-based NLSA administered annually since 2009.
Diagnostic and monitoring purposes. School-specific reports are prepared, but no explicit consequences are attached to them.
The test was modeled after a USAID-supported program.
Sample-based NLSA established in 2000.
Administered irregularly, but efforts to advance toward a more predictable framework are underway.
The assessment has benefited in the past from UNICEF’s financial support.
Sample-based NLSA with monitoring purposes in place since the early 2000s.
Assessment is theoretically conducted triennially, these terms have not always been met.
Administered by both national and local educational authorities.
Sporadic and scarcely institutionalized experimentation with NLSAs with monitoring purposes during the 1990s and early 2000s.
Efforts to establish a student assessment framework relying on NLSAs currently underway.
Key support from the World Bank, Global Partnership for Education and UNICEF, i.a.
Sample-based NLSA with monitoring purposes established in 2011, with a second iteration in 2014 and a third one planned for 2016/17.
Initially conducted by UNESCO, UNICEF, and Data Angel Policy Research.
Technical assistance provided by USAID and DfID.
Sample-based NLSA with monitoring purposes established in 1994, with 6 iterations having taken place since then.
Apparently discontinued in 2014.
Census-based NLSA with monitoring, diagnostic and accountability purposes administered annually from 2011 to 2014.
Discontinued in 2015 largely as a result of teachers’ unions’ mobilizations.
New assessment framework under development establishes sample-based NLSA administered on a triennial basis.
Sample-based NLSA with monitoring purposes established in 1996.
Administered annually, although the targeted skills and subjects vary.
Financial support from the World Bank, i.a.
Sample-based NLSA with monitoring purposes administered biennially since the late 1990s.
Administered by the Examinations Council of Zambia, a semi-autonomous governmental organization.
Administered at the primary and lower-secondary education levels- although, for the latter, tests are only administered to students in general education programs.
Sample-based NLSA established in 2012.
Originally oriented at assessing the impact of a UNICEF program, but preserved as a system-wide monitoring device.
Developed in close cooperation with the Australian Council for Education Research (ACER).
NLSA in place since 2010, but implemented irregularly.
The final purposes of the assessment remain unclear – results are not used for accountability purposes but could have consequences for students.
Sample-based NLSA with monitoring purposes undertaken in 2006 and 2011, with the support of the World Bank.
Sample-based NLSA administered at least in three occasions since 2000.
Irregular cycle of administration.
Another punctual assessment was administered in 2007 with the support of the World Bank to assess education quality in early primary school grades.
Sample-based NLSA under development since 2007, and administered for the first time in 2015.
Two different subjects tested each year according to a 3-year assessment cycle.
Assessment framework developed by the National Assessment Center of Education Quality - a non-governmental organization affiliated with the Beijing National University.
Census-based NLSA administered annually since 2007.
Assessment conceived as a diagnostic device – oriented at identifying students at risk.
Formative assessment with diagnostic purposes administered yearly since 2007.
Mainly oriented at giving feedback to students, teachers and parents on students’ learning progress.
Sample-based NLSA with monitoring purposes established in 2015.
Focuses on STEM subjects.
Tests administered by the National Assessment and Examination Center, set up with the support of the World Bank.
Sample-based NLSA with monitoring purposes, established in 2002.
The test has been administered to different grades every 3 years, but in 2017 up to four grades were assessed simultaneously for the first time.
Results reported at national and state level and, since 2017, at district level.
Israel
Census-based NLSA established in 2002.
Conceived as a low-stakes assessment, the test has de facto acquired higher stakes as school and neighborhood comparisons have become commonplace.
The frequency of the tests was reduced after the establishment of an independent evaluation agency in 2005 – so that schools were to be externally tested in each subject once every 4 years.
Palestine
Sample-based NLSA administered on a biennial basis.
Formally established in 2008.
Monitoring purposes. No stakes are attached to results.
Census-based NLSA with diagnostic and monitoring purposes administered yearly since 2000.
Additional sample-based assessment introduced in 2006 in order to allow for longitudinal comparisons. Up until now, it has been administered on three occasions.
Sample-based NLSA with monitoring purposes established in 2011.
Administered annually.
Replaces the census-based NLSA previously in place since 2005 – which used to entail higher stakes for schools.
Sample-based NLSA with system-level monitoring purposes administered since 1996, but with an irregular frequency.
Largely dependent on external funding. The World Bank and Australian and French aid cooperation feature as the most prominent donors.
A sample-based NLSA has been conducted since 2004.
It focuses on ISCED 1 students.
Students’ learning outcomes concur, together with other criteria, to the awarding of teacher bonuses.
A sample-based NLSA was conducted over the 2012-2014 period.
Oriented at capturing progress by testing the same students’ cohort at different points in time.
Financial support provided by UNICEF.
Biennial NLSA with monitoring purposes established in the early 2010s.
Tests are administered among a sample of students in different grades (ISCED 1 and 2).
Technical assistance to test development was provided by the government of Finland in 2015.
At least 3 sample-based NLSA with monitoring purposes conducted during the early 2000s.
A census-based NLSA with a focus on ISCED 2 students is in place since 2007.
Tests are conceived as diagnostic in nature, but some stakes are attached to the test as students with outstanding performance are awarded with a prize.
NLSA with monitoring purposes administered since the mid-2000s.
The test relies on sample of students in different grades (ISCED 1 and 2).
Support from different development partners including the World Bank, Department for International Development (UK), UNICEF.
Census-based NLSA in place since the mid-2000s.
Administered annually to students in three different grades.
Used mainly for monitoring and quality assurance purposes.
A variety of NLSAs have been administered since the turn of the century, but it has not been until 2013 that a more comprehensive system of national assessment has been developed.
This system includes a national assessment used for monitoring, accountability and quality assurance purposes, and informs school rankings and teachers’ performance evaluation.
Additional large-scale assessments are also conducted at a region level.
Malaysia
Well-established tradition of public examinations at the end of different levels of schooling.
The system has recently been reformed to replace some of the tests by school-based assessments.
Singapore
High-stakes examinations in place for decades and constituting a central feature of the education system.
Examinations are used for students’ certification and streaming purposes, and have long fostered school comparisons.
Stakes have recently decreased as the elaboration of rankings has been discontinued.
Sample-based NLSA with monitoring and diagnostic purposes established in 2003.
Administered on a triennial basis.
Developed with the support of the New Zealand and Australian bilateral aid agencies.
NLSA with monitoring purposes established in 2004.
Administered on a biennial basis over the 2004-2008 period, resumed in 2012.
Relies on a sample of students in ISCED 1 and ISCED 2 grades.
No NLSA is currently conducted at ISCED 1 or 2 levels.
A National Testing Center (NTC) established with the support of the World Bank education project, the READ Trust Fund and the Open Society Institute
The NTC has focused on university-entrance examination, but is expected to develop a NLSA in the long run.
Census-based NLSA in place since the mid-2000s.
The assessment has monitoring and diagnostic purposes.
Administered annually to students at the end of primary, lower secondary and upper secondary.
Census-based NLSA with monitoring and diagnostic purposes.
In place since the early 2000s and operating on a regular basis.
Test instruments recently developed by the Australian Council for Education Research (ACER).
Sample-based NLSAs with monitoring purposes administered at least since the early 2000s, but with an irregular frequency.
Financial support provided by a variety of development partners, including the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank.
Census-based NLSA with diagnostic and certification purposes in place since 1985.
Census-based NLSA with diagnostic and monitoring purposes administered annually since 2000.
Sample-based NLSA with diagnostic and monitoring purposes administered annually since 2008.
Census-based NLSA with diagnostic and monitoring purposes in place since the early 2000s.
Administered irregularly in terms of frequency.
NLSA with diagnostic and monitoring purposes administered annually since the early 2010s.
Initially designed as a sample-based assessment, it has recently adopted a census-based approach.
Support provided by the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank.
NLSA with monitoring purposes conducted annually since the mid-2000s.
The assessment administered at the end of basic education is census-based, but assessments in other grades are sample-based.
Other NLSA formerly in place enjoyed the support of a variety of development agencies, including the World Bank and USAID.
Census-based NLSA with monitoring and diagnostic purposes established in the mid-2000s.
Assessments are administered irregularly.
Sample-based NLSA with monitoring purposes in place since the early 1990s, with a changing cycle of administration.
It started being administered annually in 2016.
The national assessment framework is complemented by province-specific evaluations.
Census-based NLSA in place since the early 2000s.
Originally conducted on a triennial basis, but administered annually since 2012.
Conceived as a monitoring tool, but perceived as a high-stakes assessment by school actors, given the visibility of school-level results and the association of these results to the distribution of teacher bonuses.
NLSA established in the late 2000s.
Used mainly for monitoring purposes.
Generally administered as a sample-based assessment with the exception of the 2008 roll-out.
NLSA administered irregularly since the mid-1990s.
Generally administered as a sample-based assessment with the exception of the 2015 round.
External funding provided by the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank.
Census-based NLSAs administered annually since 2006.
Oriented at system-level monitoring and school-level evaluation.
Sample-based NLSA administered intermittently from 1996 to 2013.
Sample-based NLSAs with system-wide monitoring purposes administered since the mid-1990s.
New assessment framework established in 2016, leading to higher levels of institutionalization.
The dissemination of individual- or school-level results is explicitly avoided, as well as the elaboration of rankings.
No NLSA administered regularly beyond a well-established system of end-of-phase examinations.
Last NLSA with system-wide monitoring purposes administered in 2015.
The test relied on a sample of students and enjoyed UNICEF support.
Comprehensive NLSA established in 2008, entailing full-cohort testing in multiple subjects and grades.
No formal consequences attached to test results…
…but reputational stakes are high given the visibility of schools’ and districts’ performance.
NLSA introduced in the 2011/12 academic year in order to monitor progress against recently developed learning standards.
Different areas of knowledge assessed on a rotatory basis.
Administered to students at the end of ISCED 1 and ISCED 2.
Flemish community: sample-based NLSA in place since 2002 and used primarily for system-wide monitoring purposes.
French community: census-based NLSA established in 2006, used as a monitoring device at the system level, and for formative purposes at the school level.
No NLSA allowing for system-wide evaluation currently in place.
End-of-phase examinations are developed locally and not directly comparable.
NLSA in place since the mid-2000s and oriented mainly at system-level monitoring.
Test administered to students at the end of compulsory education serves also students’ certification and selection purposes.
No regular assessment in place.
A NSLA enabling system-wide monitoring was expected to be established by the early 2010s, but has not been implemented yet.
First NLSAs conducted in the mid-2000s with the support of a World Bank-coordinated project.
Progressive institutionalization of a national assessment with the support of external funding.
Sample-based NLSA conducted at different grades since 2012, and oriented at system-wide monitoring and policy-making.
Sample-based NLSA in place since 2007.
Oriented at nationwide system monitoring, and providing comparable data across different provinces.
Provincial assessments remain the main instrument used for accountability purposes. Stakes associated to results vary highly across different provinces.
No regular NLSA administered on a regular basis besides a long established system of end-of-phase examinations.
Comprehensive system of external evaluation of primary and secondary schools currently in development.
Administration of multiple NLSA since the late 1990s and over the 2000s.
Tests generally rely on a sample of students.
Growing number of targeted grades and subjects.
Extensive system of nationwide standardized testing introduced in 2010.
NLSA used for monitoring, evaluative and diagnostic purposes.
No formal stakes attached to the test, but intermittent publication of school results, sometimes by local authorities.
NLSA administered on an irregular basis since the mid-2000s, some of them benefitting from external funding.
Sample-based NLSA expected to be introduced in the coming years, with the financial support of the World Bank.
Established tradition of high-stakes examinations administered at transition points.
A series of one-off assessments have been conducted since the 90s –but system-wide monitoring remains scarcely institutionalized.
Census-based NLSA established in the mid-2000s.
Administered annually to multiple grades.
Used for diagnostic and system-wide monitoring purposes, as well as to inform parental choice and ensure schools’ accountability.
NLSA with system-wide monitoring purposes in place since the late 1990s.
The test relies on a sample of students in two different grades at ISCED 1 level.
Sample-based NLSA in place since the mid-1990s.
Used mainly for system-wide monitoring purposes.
School rankings are explicitly avoided.
Comprehensive system of sample-based NLSA with system-wide monitoring purposes in place since 2003 – a wide range of subjects are assessed on a rotatory basis.
Census-based NLSA in place since the late 1990s and expanded in the late 2000s. It is conceived as a diagnostic tool oriented at identifying students’ individual needs and monitoring individual achievement, but used also to inform school and teaching improvement strategies, and as a system-wide monitoring tool.
Different low-stakes, standard-based assessments adopted since the mid-2000s as part of a national assessment strategy that is common to all länder.
Sample-based assessment with system-level monitoring purposes administered on a regular basis across the 16 länder.
A census-based, school-level assessments is also administered annually within the 16 länder. It is oriented at teaching and school improvement – principals and teachers are directly held accountable for school results.
A census-based NLSA, administered annually, is in place since 2001.
Originally oriented at system-level monitoring and used for formative purposes at the school level.
Results increasingly used for school evaluation purposes, and with the passage of time has covered an increasing number of grades.
A census-based NLSA is administered regularly to students in multiple grades.
Used primarily for system-wide monitoring purposes and for formative purposes at the school level.
An externally administered sample-based assessment is conducted regularly since the 1970s in ISCED 1, and is used for system-wide monitoring purposes.
Since 2012, primary schools are required to administer standardized tests to all students in a selection of grades. Results are used mainly for formative purposes at the school level, and for system-level monitoring.
Census-based NLSA in place since the 2009/10 academic year, oriented at system-wide monitoring and schools’ self-evaluation.
Administered yearly to students in different grades (ISCED 1 and 2).
Formally designed as low-stakes for schools and teachers, but progressively attached to higher stakes through visibility of school results and their use for principal evaluation.
New Zealand
Sample-based NLSA in place since the mid-1990s.
Administered yearly and targeted to cover a wide range of knowledge areas, which are assessed on a rotatory basis.
Used primarily for system-wide monitoring purposes.
Cook Islands
Census-based NLSAs administered yearly since 1994.
Assessment efforts largely motivated by monitoring purposes.
Efforts to build an Assessment Test for grade 8 are underway, in collaboration with the New Zealand Council of Education Research.
England
A comprehensive system of mandatory student assessments is in place since the early 1990s.
Used to identify individual learning needs and for school accountability purposes
School results are disseminated in league tables, and expected to inform parental choice.
Scotland
The sample-based NLSA was discontinued in 2016
Replaced by a standardized assessment that is expected to be administered to all students in selected grades
The new assessment is conceived as a system-wide monitoring tool and will be used to identify students’ individual needs and to inform school and teaching improvement strategies.
Wales
A census-based NLSA with diagnostic and monitoring purposes introduced in 2013.
Northern Ireland
An external assessment - other than end-of-phase examinations - remains in a development stage.
Well-established system of sample-based, low-stakes NLSAs in place since the late 1960s.
Since the early 2000s, federal legislation requires states to conduct annual student assessment with high stakes for schools – as school-specific performance is widely disseminated and results’ stagnation derives in multiple sanctions.
Accountability frameworks differ greatly across states, but federal legislation has tended to encourage the expansion of incentives and sanctions faced by teachers, schools and districts.
Census-based NLSAs introduced in the early 1990s – in order to support greater levels of decentralization and to advance towards a results-based management system.
Tests serving a variety of functions including the evaluation of individual students, informing schools’ self-evaluation, and system-wide monitoring.
Formally designed as low-stakes for schools and teachers, but the publication of school results has tended to foster competitive dynamics.
Low-stakes NLSA in place since 2007
Generally administered to the full cohort of selected grades.
Used for system-wide monitoring purposes as well as a diagnostic assessment in order to inform school and teaching improvement strategies.
Diagnostic assessments administered yearly to students in different grades.
Certification tests administered at the end of basic education are also used for system-wide monitoring purposes.
Sample-based NLSA with system-wide monitoring purposes administered regularly since the early 2000s.
NLSAs oriented at instructional improvement at the student, classroom and school level administered to different grades (ISCED 1 and 2) since the early 2010s. Schools’ and municipalities’ participation is voluntary, but has become nearly universal over the last decade.
An additional statutory assessment at the end of ISCED2 is in place since 2011. The test has no consequences for students, but participation is mandatory.
Census-based NLSA in place since the late 2000s.
Results are reported at student, classroom, school and system levels.
Primarily used for monitoring and formative purposes.
No NLSA in place.
High-stakes examinations for students at the end of upper secondary education are informally used as a proxy of the quality of the educational system.
NLSA with formative and system-wide monitoring purposes in place until mid-2000s.
Replaced in the early 2010s by a new, contested NLSA oriented primarily at assessing the objectivity of teachers’ grading – eventually terminated in 2017.
Census-based NLSA administered to multiple grades since the early 2000s.
Used mainly for diagnostic purposes (ISCED 1) and for students’ certification and selection purposes (ISCED 2).
Census-based NLSA administered to multiple grades since the mid-2010s.
Results used for diagnostic purposes and for system-level monitoring.
ISCED 1 assessment was initially sample-based, but a census approach was eventually adopted over concerns with classroom assessments’ accuracy, and in order to ensure comparability.
No regular NLSA in place besides end-of-phase examinations.
Last NLSA with monitoring purposes conducted in 2006, the test was administered to a sample of ISCED 1 students.
Census-based NLSA in place since 2009, with high-stakes for students.
Wide dissemination of schools’ results in the assessment has tended to foster competition dynamics.
First NLSA established in 2006 and repeated at least in four occasions since then.
The tests rely on a sample of students and are oriented at system-wide monitoring.
The development of test and analysis of results have benefited from foreign technical assistance, including the services provided by the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER).
Sample-based NLSA in place since the late 1990s.
Currently administered to students in first to ninth grades on a regular basis.
The assessment has benefited from USAID’s support.
Well-established system of end-of-phase examinations, in place since the early 2000s.
Tests are perceived as high-stakes for students, even if they are increasingly expected to serve system-wide monitoring and planning purposes.
NLSA in place since the early 2000s.
Initially conceived as a sample-based instrument, but a census-based approach was adopted in 2008.
Stakes have tended to increase, as schools are required to publish their results since the late 2000s.
Census-based NLSA in place since the early 2000s.
Students take this test at two stages of their primary school career.
Used for diagnostic and monitoring purposes.
Well-established tradition of school leaving examinations.
At the primary education level, examinations are combined with a variety of diagnostic and formative assessments – although some of them have recently become high-stakes for students.
Sample-based NLSA established in 2015 with the support from the Australian Council for Education Research (ACER).
Expected to be expanded in terms of targeted grades and subjects.
A census-based NLSA is administered at the end of lower secondary education.
A similar test is in place at the end of primary education – but remains voluntary in nature. The test is used primarily as a diagnostic assessment and in order to inform school and teaching improvement strategies, and, to a lesser extent, for system-wide monitoring purposes.
A 4-year cycle NLSA started in 2013 but has yet to be completed.
Oriented at measuring both achievement and progress by testing the same students’ cohort at different points in time.
Test instrument developed by the Australian Council for Educational Research.
Sample-based NSLA with system-wide monitoring purposes in place since 2001.
Irregular cycle of implementation: initially conduced twice a year, then yearly, and finally, biennially.
Different grades are assessed each year, on a rotatory basis.
National assessments are administered irregularly: last one on in 2011, and the previous one in 1996.
The assessment relied on sample of students in two different grades (ISCED 1).
Explicitly inspired by international assessments- more prominently, the Programme for the Analysis of Education Systems (PASEC).
The Dutch government plays a strong role in quality assurance (setting standards, objectives and exam content).
Over the last decade, testing has expanded and changed in function (from high stakes for students to high stakes for schools)
High levels of school (board) autonomy has at times conflicted with test-based reform
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National tests serve both a formative and a summative purpose in Norway, and measure competencies across subjects
Due to the decentralized nature of the educational system, decisions on how to follow-up results are left to the local government, which is something conducive to variety in accountability routines and practices across the country
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The SIMCE test is a key component of a profound market-oriented reform adopted in the 1980s.
SIMCE results are used to inform school choice and teachers’ promotion decisions.
During the 2000s, policy-makers started using SIMCE to try to address market failures in education
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Spain has determinately embraced SAWA policies with the 2013 education reform act. However, the regional governments of Madrid and Catalonia adopted SAWA policies well before.
Madrid started promoting a model of high-stakes accountability with the introduction of the CDI test in 2005. This model has been reinforced by regulations favouring freedom of school choice.
In contrast, Catalonia has privileged a model of low-stakes accountability, which is combined with a rather restricted system of school choice.
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Since 1995, Brazil has implemented a broad range of large scale assessments at different scales.
In a decentralized country such as Brazil, many regions combine national assessments with their own tests and accountability policies, which often have career and financial implications for schools and teachers.
This is also the case of Minas Gerais, especially since the introduction of the Sistema Mineiro de Avaliação da Educação Pública (SIMAVE) in the year 2000.
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