International Comparisons of Compulsory Assessment Systems 2007

Produced in 2007, this is an an International Review of Curriculum and Assessment (INCA) thematic probe to compare compulsory assessment systems which the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA) asked National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) to undertake. It gathered information via the 20 INCA country archives to help in preparing QCA’s response to the Education Select committee’s enquiry into national assessment.

[b]Context [/b]
INCA is QCA's International Review of Curriculum and Assessment Frameworks Internative Archive at www.inca.org.uk. It is managed and updated by the International Information Unit at the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER). INCA provides descriptions of government policy on education for 20 countries. It focuses on curriculum, assessment and initial teacher training frameworks for pre-school, primary, lower secondary and upper secondary education in schools (3-19 age range).

The probe sought answers to the following questions, which were developed by QCA's International Unit in response to the Select Committee's enquiry:
1. Is there a compulsory assessment system?
2. What is the compulsory assessment system intended for (evaluative, summative, formative)?
3. Which pupils are assessed (cohort or sample, ages/stages)?
4. When are pupils assessed?
5. Which subjects are assessed?

The result is detailed and up-to-date tabulations of information for Australia, Canada, England, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Korea, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the USA and Wales.