Standardized international assessments and their data are among the most influential features of contemporary educational policy and practice in Europe and beyond (Sellar and Lingard, 2013). This presentation will propose and discuss a research agenda for the emerging field of International Assessment Studies (IAS) the aims of which are to inquire into issues of data production and validity, changing understandings of literacy and the power and uses of comparative knowledge of literacy for policy and practice (Guadalupe and Cardoso, 2011; Hamilton et al forthcoming ). The presentation will review recent published literature on the topic, identify theoretical, conceptual and methodological trends and set out some directions for future research Meyer and Ramirez , 2000). In doing so, the presenters examine the production of literacy assessment data from ethnographic observations of small-scale testing situations and every-day assessment practice, to processes of ‘assembling’ data validity in communities of practice, to the reception of international assessment data in local, national and international contexts (Maddox, forthcoming). In particular, the paper will examine the practices and challenges of innovative ‘frontier’ programmes of international literacy assessment that seek to push the boundaries of cross-cultural testing and comparison, and to codify diverse literacy and numeracy traditions and practices into sets of numbers, levels and graphical figures.

Guadalupe, C. and Cardoso, M. (2011). Measuring the continuum of literacy skills among adults: educational testing and the LAMP Experience. International Review of Education. Vol.57. May 2011. Hamilton M., Maddox B., Addey, C. (forthcoming): Literacy as Numbers: Researching the Politics and Practices of International Literacy Assessment. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press. Maddox, B. (forthcoming) Inside the Assessment Machine – The Life and Times of a test item in Hamilton et al. Chapter 9 Meyer, J. W. and F. O. Ramirez (2000). The world institutionalization of education. Discourse formation in comparative education. J. Schriewer. Frankfurt, Peter Lang Publishers. Sellar, S. and B. Lingard (2013). PISA and the Expanding Role of the OECD in Global Education Governance. in H. D. Meyer and A. Benavot PISA, Power, and Policy the emergence of global educational governance Wallingford/GB, Symposium Books.