ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines a framework of rationales for participating in international large-scale assessments (ILSA) and examines the multiple localised meanings attached to ILSA participation. Examining the localised meanings that ILSAs are given in each context can help to deepen our understanding of the central role that ILSAs now play in epistemological and infrastructural global governance. The ILSA phenomenon has changed education policy processes whilst education actors globally have reframed their values, beliefs and work programmes around the role and outcomes of these assessments. Organisations that develop, administer and lobby for the implementation of ILSAs claim that assessment data provides reliable evidence for policymaking and enables the evaluation and benchmarking of educational performance. Participation of low- and middle-income countries in ILSAs is often linked to funding and aid conditions. The chapter highlights how the various uses of ILSAs make economic and political considerations as important as educational considerations, or perhaps even more important, when decisions are taken to participate in ILSAs.
