Several countries have implemented monitoring systems where students need to take standardized tests at regular intervals. These tests may serve either a development-oriented goal that supports public trust in schools, or a more accountability-oriented perspective to increase control. Currently, the Flemish education system has no standardized testing. The idea of implementing a monitoring system is highly contentious. By means of a Delphi study with policy makers, education specialists, school governors, principals, teachers, and a student representative (n=24), we identified the characteristics of a monitoring system that would be accepted by different stakeholders. Based on these characteristics, we proposed eight scenarios for future policy development. Next, the desirability of these scenarios was assessed by each respondent. The results show that in order to gain broad social support, a focus on strengthening trust is preferred over a focus on control through such measures as avoiding the public availability of test results. In addition, other key results for the development and implementation of a system to monitor student learning outcomes are discussed.
This article will describe four discourses relating to external influences on the working conditions of educational professionals, discourses which also reflect the ways in which such professionals are perceived. The background is the development of Danish society and the Danish education system since World War II, but a great number of Western European countries, members of the OECD, have been strongly influenced by the same transnational agencies and have therefore been influenced in the same ways. As a result, the findings are also relevant for countries other than Denmark. The first discourse was constructed in the welfare state era, which lasted from World War II until the beginning of this century. In this discourse, teachers were supposed to act according to a democratic Bildung discourse. The second discourse overlapped the first in the competitive state era from 2000 onwards. In this discourse, teachers are supposed to act according to an agenda of effectiveness and accountability. The third and fourth discourses focus on learning outcomes and technologies in the marketplace: eduBusiness and data-driven digital discourses.