Sections offered SPRING 2023:
#34840 |
DAVID RUTKOWSKI |
MW 9:45-11:00 am |
HU 108 |
CLASS NOTES: IUB GenEd S&H credit; COLL (CASE) S&H Breadth of Inquiry credit
Above class meets In Person. For more information visit https://covid.iu.edu/learning-modes/index.html
What we measure often becomes what matters. This is particularly true in education where large-scale assessments are administered to students around the world and the results are then used to rank order countries. Further, results from these assessments are used by international organizations around the world such as the World Bank and various United Nations agencies to influence educational and development funding decisions.
In this course, we unpack how educational systems are measured and how those measurements are used to inform policy decisions. Specifically, the course will consist of two phases. During the first phase we will explore how educational systems are measured and who decides what is collected. During this phase participants will gain a general understanding of indicators, evaluation and assessment, and how power relations determine what is deemed important. During phase II we will turn our attention towards international case studies of how assessment data has been used to provoke policy changes. Here, we will explore different educational systems from around the world, cover how their educational systems differ, and examine specific policy reforms that resulted from participation in international educational assessments.
The course is developed for students with little or no previous experience with education or educational policy but who are interested in the topic either because they are considering it as a future career or because they would like to better understand educational systems around the world and how assessment influences educational processes.