This paper draws on the project research to summarise and analyse the shifting nature of QAE in the English context, with attention to the size and scope of the apparatus and technologies of performance measurement that have been developed in recent years for performance management and measurement there. It then considers the relationship between the specific pattern and characteristics of QAE in education in England and the influence of European and other organisations and processes that seek to provide inter-and trans-national benchmarks and indicators of quality. We consider how English QAE policy responds to these pressures and assess the degree to which the idea of a shared European agenda for QAE is evidenced in the context of England. How far can the massive investment in data production be explained by reference to global competition and achieving 'world class education'? How far is it rooted in national agendas of modernisation and changing governance of education (and other services)? Is European policy for QAE important in the English context? Methodology. The paper draws on the project methodology and the work in progress that we shall report on consists for the most part of policy text analysis and interviews with selected policy 'brokers' operating at the interface between national policy and European/international developments. The data are analysed using a discourse analysis approach drawing on the work of Fairclough (2002). Conclusions. The work is still in progress, but we anticipate offering a characterisation of the quality assessment and evaluation process in English schooling in terms of its developmental, monitoring and regulatory capacities. We will relate this to an assessment of the ways in which-if at all-European pressures for QAE contribute to governing practices in English education.