Data for Accountability in Education
Global Trends in School Reform
Will be published approx. on 28. March 2026
Book
Hardback
178 pages
978-1-0353-4985-2 (ISBN)
Description
This timely book investigates the emergence of data-for-accountability as a governing tool in education. Five leading scholars explore its evolution over time and across regions, highlighting how datafication in education benefits some and disadvantages others.
The authors trace the origins of using data for accountability in education back to the 1990s, demonstrating how various actors have adapted and tailored this trend, thus diversifying its use as a governance tool. They examine the rise of student testing, performance-based evaluation and governance by numbers to reveal the political, economic and pedagogical uses and abuses of data. Drawing on a variety of methods, theories and disciplines, including a combination of macro-, meso-, and microlevel analyses, the authors illustrate how these instruments have taken root globally, why they persist and how their meanings and effects vary across policy contexts.
Data for Accountability in Education is a crucial resource for scholars, students and practitioners in comparative education and international education policy, as well as those engaged with the sociology of education. Policymakers working with educational data will also find the book a valuable reference point for understanding accountability in education.
The authors trace the origins of using data for accountability in education back to the 1990s, demonstrating how various actors have adapted and tailored this trend, thus diversifying its use as a governance tool. They examine the rise of student testing, performance-based evaluation and governance by numbers to reveal the political, economic and pedagogical uses and abuses of data. Drawing on a variety of methods, theories and disciplines, including a combination of macro-, meso-, and microlevel analyses, the authors illustrate how these instruments have taken root globally, why they persist and how their meanings and effects vary across policy contexts.
Data for Accountability in Education is a crucial resource for scholars, students and practitioners in comparative education and international education policy, as well as those engaged with the sociology of education. Policymakers working with educational data will also find the book a valuable reference point for understanding accountability in education.
Reviews / Votes
'In the absence of a global Ministry of Education, international organizations and data systems have grown dramatically in recent decades. The chapters of this book impressively review this new educational world. They consider its sources, character and effects -and the normative and political tensions arising from the expanded global system of power and possibility.' -- John W. Meyer, Stanford University, USAMore details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Cheltenham
United Kingdom
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Dimensions
Height: 216 mm
Width: 138 mm
ISBN-13
978-1-0353-4985-2 (9781035349852)
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Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Gita Steiner-Khamsi, Professor, Teachers College, Columbia University, Patricia Bromley, Associate Professor, Stanford University, USA, Rie Kijima, Assistant Professor, University of Toronto, Canada, Kerstin Martens, Professor, University of Bremen, Germany and Antoni Verger, Professor, Autonomous University of Barcelona, Spain