ABSTRACT
Part of larger global trends in the rise of big data and the datafication in education systems is the proliferation and prominence of international large-scale assessments (ILSAs). Since the mid-1990s, ILSAs have continued to develop into what many in the policy community view as essential tools that provide them with insights into how a system is doing with respect to others. While much has been written about ILSAs, in particular the uses, motivations, misuses, and limitations of these assessments, there has been only minimal accounting of the costs of participation. This chapter explores some of these challenges and opportunities associated with research on the monetary costs of participating in ILSAs. We develop a discussion around core issues facing a cost-benefit analysis (CBA) of ILSAs. We argue that while CBA is likely to be problematic, we nonetheless frame costs of ILSA as a meaningful focus of future research. Specifically, by examining costs of ILSAs, we argue that critical questions are revealed related to how the architecture of ILSAs get constructed and become mobilized in different settings.
