Governance structure and standard setting in educational assessment. Issue 2 (3rd March 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Opposs, Dennis; Baird, Jo-Anne; Chankseliani, Maia; Stobart, Gordon; Kaushik, Amit; McManus, Hugh; Johnson, David
• Is Part Of: Assessment in education. Volume 27:Issue 2(2020)
• Page Start: 192
• Page End: 214
• Publication Date: 2020-03-03
• Subjects: Governance -- standard setting -- university entrance examinations -- assessment -- comparative assessment; Educational tests and measurements -- Periodicals; Education -- Evaluation -- Periodicals; 371.26
• DOI: 10.1080/0969594X.2020.1730766
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0969-594X

Abstract

ABSTRACT: Seldom have comparative studies of educational assessment systems been undertaken, especially regarding their standard setting procedures. This study examines the effects of governance structures on the power relations in standard setting in the dominant school-leaving or university-entrance examinations. We present acritical analysis of the published research and policy documents, including sense-checking with senior assessment practitioners from 22 jurisdictions. The nature of standard setting systems in three cases of Ireland, the USA and India are described in detail to showcase the differences between the following three models of governance systems: nationalised, commercial market and quasi-market. The contribution of this article, then, is to describe the three models of governance systems, to classify the 22 jurisdictions using the three models, and to generate propositions inductively. Thus, the article provides aconceptual basis for extension of this work to other cases to advance the literature cumulatively by theory-building.