Title: Educational testing as an accountability measure: drawing on twentieth-century Danish history of education experiences
Abstract: AbstractThis article reveals perspectives based on experiences from twentieth-century Danish educational history by outlining contemporary, test-based accountability regime characteristics and their implications for education policy. The article introduces one such characteristic, followed by an empirical analysis of the origins and impacts of test-based accountability measures applying both top-down and bottom-up perspectives.These historical perspectives offer the opportunity to gain a fuller understanding of this contemporary accountability concept and its potential, appeal and implications for continued use in contemporary educational settings. Accountability measures and practices serve as a way to govern schools; by analysing the history of accountability as the concept has been practised in the education sphere, the article will discuss both pros and cons of such a methodology, particularly as it relates to contemporary education governance.Keywords: educational testingaccountabilityhistory of educationhistory of psychologyDanish educationGreenlandic education Notes1Educational Accountability Act of 1971, Section 229.57, Florida Statutes.2Katherine E. Ryan and Irwin Feller, "Evaluation, Accountability and Performance Measurement in National Education Systems - Trends, Methods, and Issues," in The Sage International Handbook of Educational Evaluation, ed. Katherine E. Ryan and Bradley J. Cousins (Los Angeles: Sage, 2009), 171–89.3Christian Ydesen, The Rise of High-stakes Educational Testing in Denmark, 1920–1970 (Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang Verlag, 2011).4Rasmus Hans Pedersen, "Standpunktsprøver og ministerielle prøver," Folkeskolen, 48, no. 29 (1931): 501.5Tim McNamara, Language Testing (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000), 10.6Stefan Hopmann, "No Child, No School, No State Left Behind: Schooling in the Age of Accountability," Journal of Curriculum Studies 40, no. 4 (2008): 422.7Peter Dahler-Larsen, Evalueringskultur – et begreb bliver til (Odense: Syddansk Universitetsforlag, 2006), 61.8Pernille Fryd, Team and test – en systemteoretisk komparativ interviewundersøgelse af implementeringen af accountability-reformpolitik i grundskolen i Danmark og USA (PhD dissertation, Danish School of Education, University of Aarhus, 2009).9Christian Lundahl, Att samla in, publicera och använda skolresultat i de nordiska länderna (Danish Government Report, 2010), 10.10Jenny Ozga, Peter Dahler-Larsen, Christina Segerholm, and Hannu Simola, eds, Fabricating Quality in Education: Data and Governance in Europe (London: Routledge, 2011).11M. Lawn, "Standardizing the European Education Policy Space," European Educational Research Journal, 10, no. 2 (2011), 259–72.12Ibid., 260.13Ibid., 261.14Danish Ministry of Education, Faglighed og frihed – regeringens udspil til en bedre folkeskole (Danish government report, 2010), p. 10.15Berlingske research, article published September 2011.16See e.g. V. N. Andersen, P. Dahler-Larsen, and C. S. Pedersen, "Quality Assurance and Evaluation in Denmark', Special Issue, Journal of Education Policy, 24, no. 2 (2009), pp. 135–47; and Dahler-Larsen, Evalueringskultur…, Ch. 3.17Vagn Skovgaard-Petersen, "Fra gejstligt til verdsligt tilsyn," Uddannelseshistorie, 20 (1986), 50–65.18Ibid., p. 53 (all translations made by the author, unless stated otherwise).19Meddelelser vedrørende Folkeskolen, Seminarierne mv. [Reports concerning the elementary school and training colleges, etc.], 1933, p. 19.20Ibid., p. 25.21Erik Nørr, Genforeningens bedste gave – skoleordning og amtsskolekonsulenter i Sønderjylland og Danmark 1920–1963 (Aabenraa: Skrifter udgivet af Historisk Samfund for Sønderjylland, no. 90 (2003), 152.22Rigsarkivet [Danish National Archives], Statskonsulenten for Folkeskolen og Seminarierne [The General Inspector of the elementary school and training colleges], Ministerielle prøver [Ministerial tests].23Rigsarkivet [The Danish National Archives], Statskonsulenten for Folkeskolen og Seminarierne [The General Inspector of the elementary school and training colleges], Ministerielle prøver [Ministerial tests], Letter dated 7 February 1945.24Meddelelser vedrørende Folkeskolen, Seminarierne mv. for Aaret 1942 [Reports concerning the elementary school and training colleges, etc. for the year 1942], p. 62.25Rigsarkivet [The Danish National Archives], Statskonsulenten for Folkeskolen og Seminarierne [The General Inspector of the elementary school and training colleges], Ministerielle prøver [Ministerial tests], Letter from the Danish teachers' union to the Ministry of Education dated 27 May 1947.26Rigsarkivet [The Danish National Archives], Statskonsulenten for Folkeskolen og Seminarierne [The General Inspector of the elementary school and training colleges], Ministerielle prøver [Ministerial tests].27Christian Tybjerg, "Forslag om Oprettelse af et pædagogisk Laboratorium og en Forsøgsskole," Tidsskrift for eksperimental Pædagogik (1920), pp. 85–97.28Ydesen, Rise of High-stakes Testing.29S. C. Sunesen, "København-London og omvendt," Vor Ungdom (1924), pp. 125–36, p. 125; R. H. Pedersen, "Den nyere ekspertimentalpædagogiske forsknings praktiske resultater," in Vore børn, ed. G. J. Arvin, I. Bentzon, J. Pedersen, and V. Poulsen (Copenhagen: Steen Hasselbalchs Forlag, 1931), pp. 319–25; L. Christensen, "Socialdemokratiet og skolen," Vor Ungdom, 51 (1929), pp. 97–101. See also the Danish newspaper Børsen, May 27, 1934. Here, the prominent wholesale dealer Th. Olesen (1884–1971) launches an attack on teacher work morale based on the observation that graduates did not master certain grammatical rules concerning the Danish language. This critique is reiterated in an article by Niels P. Bjerregaard titled "Dansk Retskrivning og Erhvervene" [Danish orthography and the trades] published in Folkeskolen, December 11, 1941. In addition, the Danish newspaper Politiken, on 17 October 1939, published an article titled "Hvorledes kommer de Unge ind i Etaterne?" [How can youth enter state branches?].30E. Skov, "Standpunktsprøver," Vor Ungdom (1930), 296–302.31C. F. Banke, Den sociale ingeniørkunst i Danmark – familie, stat og politik fra 1900 til 1945 (Roskilde: Roskilde Universitetscenter, 1999); N. F. Christiansen and K. Petersen, "Socialdemokratiet og den danske velfærdsstat"; K. Petersen, ed., 13 historier om den danske velfærdsstat (Odense: Syddansk Universitetsforlag, 2003), 137–48.32G. J. Arvin, "Samfundets krav til skolen," Vor Ungdom, 51 (1929), 101–107, 101.33S. Tørsleff, "Bemærkninger i Anledning af Skolepsykolog, Mag. art. Henning Meyers Artikler," Folkeskolen 56, no. 1 (1939), 4–5.34J. Søegaard, "Ansættelse af lærere med skolepsykologisk uddannelse," Folkeskolen 58, no. 21 (1941), 357–59, 358.35The original Danish name of the organisation was Udvalget for skolepsykologiske Undersøgelser.36Folkeskolen, 1947 (April 24), 240.37Historisk Pædagogisk Studiesamling [Historical Pedagogical Study Collection], folder 8, sign. 203, Udvalget for skolepsykologiske undersøgelser, aktiviteter [activities] 1924–1927.38Arvin, "Samfundets krav…," 103.39IOE Archive, WEF III/186: G. J. Arvin, "Lines of Development in the Danish School," in Kronborg Magazine: The Fifth International Conference on New Education, Elsinore, August 1929, p. 30.40Pedersen, "Standpunktsprøver…," 502.41R. H. Pedersen and H. Meyer, Anvendelse af intelligensprøver ved optagelsesprøven til mellemskolen (Copenhagen, 1929).42Ydesen, Rise of High-stakes Testing.43H. A. Svane, "Omkring Eksamensvæsenet," Folkeskolen 58, no. 47 (1941), 795–797, 795f.44Pamphlet entitled Skolepsykologisk kontor Frederiksberg 1934–1959 (Frederiksberg, 1959), 8f.45G. Persson, "Børns vilkår i og udenfor skolen," in Bidrag til den danske skoles historie, 1898–1984, ed. C. Kruchov, vol. IV (Copenhagen: Unge Pædagoger, 1985), 21–61; and S. Rifbjerg, Hjælpeskolebørn (2nd ed.) (Copenhagen: Gyldendals Pædagogiske Bibliotek, 1963).46Copenhagen City Archives, Emdrupborg Experimental School, Wilhelm Marckmann's papers II, 1952–1964: Minutes from the Emdrupborg Teachers Conference, February 4, 1955.47Ydesen, Rise of High-stakes Testing, Ch. 6.48Kultureqarnermut, Ilinniartitaanermut, Ilisimatusarnermut, Ilageeqarnermullu Naalakkersuisoqarfik [Department for Culture, Education, Research, and Church] (KIIIN) Archives, j.nr. 0670–05–01, 70/71.49Danish National Archive, Ministry for Greenland, journalsager [cases] 1957–89, no. 1201–04.50Danish National Archive, Ministry for Greenland, journalsager [cases], 1957–89, no. 1253–22, 44.51KIIIN Archive, j.nr. 0670–05–01.52Ydesen, Rise of High-stakes Testing, Ch. 6.53Beretning om det grønlandske skolevæsen, 1963–64 [Account about the Greenlandic Educational System] (Nuuk, 1965), 11.54Ydesen, Rise of High-stakes Testing, 214ff.55Frederiksberg City Archives, the educational system [skolevæsenet], Skolen ved Solbjergvej, the remedial school [værneskolen], pupil records [elevkartotek].56The Uppsala school readiness test was a prognostic group test aimed at disclosing abilities associated with intelligence to identify children who would most probably perform poorly in school. The Swedish public school teacher Gösta Levin developed the test.57Copenhagen City Archives, Emdrupborg Experimental School, the Psychologist Room, 1959–1971: Summary of the Current Works at Copenhagen Municipal Experimental School, dated September 1959.58Copenhagen City Archives, Emdrupborg Experimental School, correspondence and cases, 1948–1968: Letter to Headmaster Eivind Jørgensen, Oslo, from Ejvind Jensen, dated 4 June 1959.59A. M. Nørvig, Beretning om Emdrupborg skoles første 6 år 1948–1954. (Copenhagen: Det danske forlag, 1955).60E. Jensen and W. Marckmann, "En prøve for skolebegyndere," Dansk Pædagogisk Tidsskrift, 3 (1955), 161–8, p. 162.61Ibid., 163.62Ibid., 162.63J. Garsdal and C. Ydesen, "The Debate on Educational and Psychological Testing in the United States: An Essay Review and Outsider Perspective with Some Philosophical Musings," Education Review 12, no. 8 (2009), 4.64Danish newspaper Information, 14 April 2011.
Publication Year: 2013
Publication Date: 2013-09-06
Language: en
Type: article
Indexed In: ['crossref']
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Cited By Count: 23
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