The politics of international testing

Abstract

How does quantifying and ranking national performance influence state behavior? Cross-national assessments in education, such as the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) promoted by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), have become increasingly prominent in recent years. However, cross-national assessments are politically contentious, and their impact remains underexplored. We argue that assessment participation has a meaningful, positive impact on education outcomes and evaluate three hypotheses related to elite, domestic, and transnational mechanisms. Our mixed-method approach draws on a panel dataset covering all cross-national assessments and all countries as well as an original survey of education officials directly responsible for planning and implementation in 46 countries. We find that assessment participation increases net secondary enrollment rates even after accounting for potential self-selection. The magnitude of this increase is large: on a global basis, it is equivalent to improved access to higher education for 27–32 million students annually. The empirical evidence suggests elite-level mechanisms are primarily responsible for these findings.