The Potentials, Politics and Practices of International Educational Assessment

在过去二十年中，教育政策和实践受到越来越多地实施国际教育评估的严重影响。当代最具影响力的国际评估包括PISA（国际学生评估计划）；TIMSS（国际数学和科学趋势调查）和PIAAC（国际成人能力评估计划）。经济合作与发展组织（OECD）负责管理PISA和PIAAC，并已成为全球教育政策中有影响力的跨国参与者——在经合组织成员国内部，并越来越多地超越经合组织成员国。国际教育大数据的重要性、比较方法、解释及其对政策和实践的影响越来越多地被学者视为一种跨国治理技术——不仅提供了比较和学习成功教育系统的潜力，而且还提供了有关此类数据框架如何影响国家和国际教育政策（以及各国如何使用和应对此类数据）的政治问题。以及与跨文化评估和比较实践相关的具有挑战性的技术和概念问题（即跨文化和语言不同背景下使用的测试标准化和修改问题）。近年来，国际评估吸引了相当多的学术关注，包括一些编辑集（例如Meyer和Benavot 2013； Pereyra， Kotthoff等人2011；Engel和Williams 2013；以及2013年和2014年世界教育年鉴）。然而，该领域的各个方面（我们称之为潜力、政治和实践）尚未整合到一个共享的领域和框架中。在本系列研讨会中，我们打算将国际评估的不同要素和重点汇集到“国际评估研究”的综合领域中（2013年）。该系列将由一个名为国际评估实验室的新研究网络运行。该网络以英国为基地，但越来越多的全球学术研究人员参与其中，以反映全球对这一现象的兴趣。当然，也有对这些主题感兴趣的学术网络和专业协会。使我们的网络与众不同的是我们致力于与国际测试机构合作并参与其中，并使用“内部帐户”（在实践中首次拥有国际评估帐户）作为调查的基础。该系列研讨会的目的是就关键政策主题提供严格的元分析，向学者、测试机构和国际评估数据的最终用户提供信息。我们的目标是：作为学术研究的工具，探讨国际教育评估的潜力、政治、实践和影响；将国际评价研究作为一个重要的学术研究和出版新领域，制定专题议程；并围绕一系列共同的兴趣和关切，建立一个可持续和强大的学者和实践者国际网络。我们将举办一系列六个（两天）的研讨会，具有明显的国际定位（包括在英国，美国，秘鲁和布鲁塞尔的研讨会）。这反映了国际评估的全球性及其影响。这些研讨会将包括公开的全体会议讲座（将录成录象并在网上提供）和为应邀参加者举办的小型活动。这些研讨会将有助于建立我们的研究网络，而且由于测试机构和评估数据的最终用户（包括决策者、教育家、民间社会组织和媒体）的参与，我们将有可能产生重大影响。

In the last two decades, educational policy and practice have been heavily influenced by the increasing implementation of international educational assessments. The most influential contemporary international assessments include PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment carried; TIMSS (Trends in International Mathematics and Science Survey) and PIAAC (Programme for International Assessment of Adult Competencies). The OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) administers PISA and PIAAC, and has become an influential trans-national actor on global educational policy - within, and increasingly beyond OECD member countries. The significance of international educational big data, the comparative methodology, its interpretation and impacts on policy and practice is increasingly viewed by scholars as a technology of trans-national governance - offering not only potentials for comparison and learning about successful educational systems, but also political questions about how such data frames and influences national and international educational policies (and how countries use and respond to such data), and challenging technical and conceptual issues associated with the practice of cross-cultural assessment and comparison (i.e. issues of test standardization and modification for use across culturally and linguistically diverse contexts). International assessments have attracted considerable academic attention in recent years including a number of edited collections (e.g. Meyer and Benavot 2013; Pereyra, Kotthoff, et al. 2011; Engel and Williams 2013; and the 2013 and 2014 World Yearbooks in Education). However, the various aspects of the field (we call Potentials, Politics and Practices) have not yet been integrated into a shared field and framework. In this seminar series we intend to bring together the different elements and foci of international assessment into a combined field of 'International Assessment Studies' (Addey 2013). The series will be run by a new network of researchers called the Laboratory of International Assessment. The network is UK based, but increasingly involves academic researchers on a global level to reflect the global interest in the phenomenon. There are of course academic networks and professional associations with an interest in these themes. What makes our network distinctive is our commitment to work with and involve international testing agencies, and to use 'insider accounts' (first had accounts of international assessment in practice) as the basis for investigation.The aim of the seminar series is to provide rigorous meta-analysis on key policy themes, to inform academics, testing agencies and the end users of international assessment data. Our objectives are: to act as a vehicle for academic enquiry into the potentials, politics and practices and impacts of international educational assessments ; to develop a thematic agenda for the international assessment studies as an important new field of academic research and publication ; and to build a sustainable and robust international network of academics and practitioners around a set of common interests and concerns.We will run a series of six (two day) seminars with a distinctly international orientation (including seminars in the UK, United States, Peru, and Brussels). This reflects the global nature of international assessments and their impacts. These seminars will include both public plenary lectures (that will be video recorded and made available on-line), and invited smaller events for invited participants. The seminars will help to build our research network, and because of the involvement of testing agencies and end-users of assessment data (including policy makers, educationalists, civil society organisations and media), we will have the potential for significant impact.