Testing

We investigate the achievement impact of alternative uses of student assessments. Our dataset covers over 2 million students in 59 countries observed over 6 waves in the international PISA test 2000-2015. Our empirical model exploits the country panel dimension to investigate assessment reforms over time, taking out country and year fixed effects. The expansion of standardized external comparisons, both school-based and student-based, is associated with improvements in student achievement. The effect of school-based comparison is stronger in low-performing countries. By contrast, solely internal testing without external comparison and internal teacher monitoring including inspectorates do not affect student achievement.