Student testing is increasingly popular around the world. Though it aids accountability, people have begun to wonder about the consequences of too much testing. In this video, LUDGER WOESSMANN analyses the effects on student learning of different types of testing. With PISA (the Programme for International Student Assessment) providing data on students, schools and testing regimes in 59 participating countries, the study identifies striking variations in effectiveness between different forms of testing. While the introduction of standardized comparative testing is observed to lead to significant improvements in student learning, internal school tests, whether used to measure the performance of students or teachers, are shown to have little discernible effect. As clear links have been identified between a nation’s performance in studies like PISA and its prospects for economic growth, Woessmann’s work has vital relevance for governments and other stakeholders in educational policy worldwide.
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.21036/LTPUB10666

Researcher

Ludger Woessmann is Professor of Economics at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich and Director of the ifo Centre for the Economics of Education. Having previously worked at the Kiel Institute for World Economics, Woessmann has been a visiting scholar at both Harvard and Stanford Universities. Central to his research are the links between education and economic prosperity and the interconnections between school systems, efficiency, and equality. Having received the IEA Bruce H. Choppin Memorial Award (2005) for his doctoral thesis, Woessmann has gone on to win the German Economic Association’s Hermann Heinrich Gossen (2014) and Gustav Stolper (2017) awards.

Institution

Original publication

Testing

Annika B. Bergbauer, Eric A. Hanushek and Ludger Woessmann
National Bureau of Economic Research
Published in 2018

Beyond