Large-scale assessment systems: Design principles drawn from international comparisons

In recent years, a number of analyseshe assessments used in different countries have appeared. Eckstein and Noah (1993) reviewed the experiences of students in the final year of upper secondary education in China, England and Wales, France, Germany, Japan, Sweden, the Soviet Union, and the United States, looking at the details of the assessments used, and the wider policy issues such as success rates and the degree of centralization. Britton and Raizen (1996) looked in greater detail at the assessments used in science and mathematics, and in particular at the coverage of different topics. These, and other analyses emerging from international comparisons such as TIMSS and PISA, have focused on what might be termed “cross-sectional” comparisons; examining the differences between the assessments in different national systems for students of the same age. Other studies have focused on the study of systems of assessments within a