This talk explores the contested evolution of Denmark’s national assessment and quality assurance system, focusing on its decade-long experiment with adaptive online testing in public education—examining its design, purpose, and implementation. National tests have long been at the centre of political and professional debate, a contention that intensified as new assessment policies took shape before, during, and after the COVID-19 pandemic. The talk investigates how key stakeholders—teachers, school leaders, politicians, and civil servants—have navigated these shifting policies, negotiating the role of standardized assessment in a changing educational landscape.
Critically engaging with the role of expertise in education policy, the talk questions the extent to which knowledge and evidence genuinely inform decision-making. It also unpacks the influence of bureaucratic logics, political agendas, and intermediary actors in shaping assessment policies, highlighting the tensions between research-based policymaking and political imperatives.
By examining Denmark’s evolving approach to national testing and the broader mechanisms of quality assurance, this talk offers insights into the power dynamics, institutional structures, and governance processes that shape the development and transformation of assessment policies in democratic education systems.
