Within the context of literature on educational reform, how do the five challenges proposed by Baird and Hopfenbeck (2016) for curriculum and assessment in the 21^sst century apply to attempts at assessment reform in secondary education in Ireland?  

Objective:  provide a context for considering assessment reform attempts in secondary education in Ireland in order to distil implications for future development in assessment reform.  

The study makes the assumption that the constructs posited as challenges for the 21^st century (Baird and Hopfenbeck, 2016) provide a lens within international educational research for interpreting/critiquing proposals and outcomes for reform in assessment in secondary education in Ireland.   Assessment reform has been very slow in Ireland, so this study investigates, on the basis of these challenges within international research, implications for the ways that Ireland may face the issue of reform in the future.          The study is therefore interpretive.  

The study gives a basis for accepting the five challenges proposed by Baird and Hopfenbeck (2016) as reasoned reflection on developments in education in many different countries.   Their reflection is well referenced and brings together diverse developments and expressed concerns of international educational researchers.   

The first challenge posited by Baird and Hopfenbeck is ‘Crisis of knowledge.’   The authors claim that the world of the 21^st century ‘demands from us the abilities to apply, synthesise and organize knowledge, to know how to learn new knowledge for the rest of our lives and to adapt this to unanticipated situations’ (823).   The authors add that it is ‘vital to be able to judge the quality of the knowledge presented and to be critical of the sources behind it’ (823).   The authors give an example of a change to the English curriculum in England in 2013 and draw the observation that what counts as knowledge in education ‘is highly influenced by politics’ (824).   Political debates as to what should be taught and what counts as valuable learning are complicated.  In addition, the focus on  ‘21^st century skills’ shows a gap between policy and empirical evidence (824).   

The second challenge is designated as ‘Spiraling reforms’ which the authors consider follows from the uncertainties of the first challenge.  Many countries have developed ‘frenetic reform activities’ (p.825), in curriculum and assessment, driven by politics.

 ‘Globalisation’ is the third challenge that reflects the move from national developments to a focus on global citizenship and international benchmarking.  National policymaking is now influenced by results in international tests such as TIMSS, PIRLS and PISA, (826) with a detrimental effect on national capacity to self-evaluate (827).  Power has shifted to the supranational agencies which means ‘there is less trust and less investment in professional capacity at the national, local level’ (827).   

The fourth challenge, ‘Pervasive performativity’ follows from this globalization trend in the conviction that professionals must be governed by ‘constant target setting and auditing’ (828).   Professionals seeking to maximize efficiency in such a score-driven system ‘is known as performativity’ (828), with score results ‘supposedly signifying student learning, teacher performance and school effectiveness’ (828).   Such a system disempowers professionals and potentially compromises genuine student learning.  

The fifth challenge, ‘Rising educational standards or grade inflation?’ addresses the issue of data from many countries that indicate higher participation in third level education and higher results in school-leaving assessment.   There is debate over whether this phenomenon represents improved standards or a weakening in the value of grades.  For grades to hold value, ‘how educational standards are measured and monitored is a big challenge for the future’ (830).  

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