International assessment of student performance is a well-established part of the educational policy environment in Scotland, where it forms part of a broader, integrated assessment system. Perhaps the most interesting insights into the attitudes of the policy community in Scotland to PISA come from an extensive research study undertaken of the use and circulation of PISA data in Scotland between 2000 and 2006 by the Centre for Educational Sociology (Grek, Lawn, & Ozga, 2009). The analysis drew attention to a number of contextual points that they perceived to be significant in considering the influence of PISA surveys in Scottish policies and perceptions of national education. They pointed to the high credibility and status that PISA had achieved in national and international policy communities (including all four countries of the UK), recognizing the fact that, for a range of reasons such as technical excellence and impartiality, PISA allows comparison with an appropriate group of nations (OECD) and is often perceived to represent the “gold standard” of educational research. Perhaps it is the unremarkable nature of Scotland’s performance in PISA that has led to comparatively more attention being paid to the survey itself than to Scotland’s actual results. First, the perceived value to Scottish politicians and policymakers of PISA lies not with the PISA data but with the symbolism attached to a high-status international survey. Participating in PISA gives Scotland a place on the international stage separate from the other UK countries (albeit still in some sense linked to them). This may be an issue of particular importance for the current Scottish Government led by the Scottish National Party, the aspiration of which is for Scotland to become an independent nation. Second, the relatively positive Scottish results over the years by comparison with other countries can be used partly to justify an element of self-satisfaction about the education system and the Scottish “balanced” approach to evaluation. This approach includes school self-evaluation and related expert evaluation carried out by school inspectors, as well as data analysis, and in recent years, has excluded intensive testing of individual pupils. Overall international testing programs such as PISA appear to have had less impact than in many other countries. Performativity pressures in Scotland have more commonly come from within the country and constant vigilance is needed to ensure that the accountability agenda is kept in some kind of perspective (Hayward, 2015).

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