Test-based accountability in the Norwegian context: exploring drivers, expectations and strategies

ABSTRACT

This paper investigates how and why test-based accountability (TBA), a global model for education reform, began to dominate educational debates in Norway in the early 2000s, and how this policy has been operationalised and institutionalised over time. In examining the adoption and retention of TBA in Norway, we build on the cultural political economy framework, in combination with a political sociology-driven approach to policy instruments. The analysis draws on two data sources: four White Papers and 37 in-depth interviews with top-level politicians, policy-makers and stakeholders, conducted between September 2017 and February 2018. The findings indicate that ‘scandalisation’ of Norway’s below-expected PISA results and promotion of standardised testing as a neutral device contributed to the relatively abrupt adoption of national testing in the early 2000s. The increasingly dominant policy discourse equalising education quality and learning outcomes led to the institutionalisation of TBA, developed to ensure equity and quality standards in a decentralised education system. Increased visibility, benchmarking and administrative control are identified as key mechanisms in putting pressure on local actors to re-orient their behaviour. The study provides original insights into the drivers, expectations and strategies underlying TBA in a social democratic institutional regime.

KEYWORDS:

• Globalisation
• education policy
• standardised testing
• test-based accountability
• New Public Management
• policy instrument approach

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank members of the research project ‘Reforming Schools Globally: A Multi-Scalar Analysis of Autonomy and Accountability in the Education Sector (REFORMED)’ at the Autonomous University of Barcelona and members of the research group ‘Curriculum Studies, Leadership and Educational Governance (CLEG)’ at the University of Oslo for their comments on earlier drafts of the manuscript. We also express our gratitude to the anonymous reviewers for valuable feedback during the review process.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors

Notes

1. There were 34 individual interviews and 3 group interviews with two participants in each.

2. Indirect identification of interviewees is prevented by not referring to a participant’s specific role. Interviewees for whom indirect identification is unavoidable, such as previous Ministers, gave explicit consent to be quoted and named.

3. This conclusion, drawn in 1975 by Bjartmar Gjerde, Minister of Church and Education Affairs from 1973 to 1976, reflected a widely shared belief.

4. That is, while much was known concerning what was going into schools in terms of resources, teachers, pupils, buildings, computer equipment etc., barely anything, except final exam scores, was known about what was coming out.

5. Upon establishment, the Commission had been mandated to ‘evaluate the content, quality, and organisation of basic education’. Under the Bondevik II government, 8 members were added to the Commission, while the mandate was extended and now included the request to develop a quality assessment system for basic education.

6. As a result of NPM reforms introduced during the late 1980s, many municipalities had already established quality assessment systems.

7. This meant that tests were not reintroduced at the upper-secondary level but only in mpulsory education.

8. Nevertheless, results uld still be requested by anyone under the Freedom of Public Information Act.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the European Research Council under Grant [680172].

Notes on contributors

Marjolein K. Camphuijsen

Marjolein K. Camphuijsen is a doctoral candidate in Sociology at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, Spain. Her research focus is on the political sociology of education, global education policy, policy enactment, and the effects of public policy on social and educational inequalities.

Jorunn Møller

Jorunn Møller is an emeritus professor at University of Oslo, the Department of Teacher Education and School Research. Her professional interests are in the areas of educational leadership and governance, reform policies and school accountability.

Guri Skedsmo

Guri Skedsmo is a professor at Schwyz University of Teacher Education in Switzerland and associate professor at University of Oslo in Norway. Her professional interests are in areas of educational governance and leadership, quality assessment and accountability.