National test results: representation and misrepresentation. Challenges for municipal and local school administration in Norway

ABSTRACT

This paper addresses the publication of results from national tests in primary and lower secondary schools by Norwegian national authorities. Test results must be made available to the public, and are published in an aggregated format at school, municipal, county and national levels on a public website. These aggregated test results are meant to provide information on school quality for local government, as well as for school development. However, how the data are presented influences their usability, and this is further affected by the fact that many municipalities and the majority of schools are quite small. Hence, in many instances the information that can be retrieved from aggregated test results at school or municipal level are of little or no value to the users. When presenting the aggregated data to the public, the government should clearly state that the data might not be useful for small schools or small municipalities with regard to analysing their own performance and for quality enhancement.

KEYWORDS:

• National tests
• data interpretation
• quality
• assurance
• primary education
• accountability

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. National tests in year 9 of compulsory schooling are a repetition of the tests undertaken by 8th graders, to compare student development.

2. Table 1 is based on data for 2015, but there are only minor changes from year to year in the number of 5th graders in municipalities and schools.