This article critically analyzes the representation of standardised assessments in Spanish educational policies, particularly in the current Spanish education law (LOMLOE), in reports on the state of the Spanish educational system (2020-2023), and through the voices of teachers working in schools with special difficulties and their implications…

The excessive academic burden that undermines students' well-being has become a matter of global concern. Drawing on Archer's social realist theory, this qualitative case study identified three forms of teacher agency in navigating academic burden under the 'Double Reduction' policy: methodological refinement that rendered the workload more…

This paper employs a Critical Cultural Political Economy of Education perspective to examine how, why, and to what effect the English proficiency rankings of a for-profit edu-business acquire the authority often granted to international large-scale assessments. Analysing the EF English Proficiency Index in the context of Ecuador illustrates how…

This study investigates washback effects of IELTS test on university teachers' adoption of teaching materials in the classroom in China and see how a high-stake language exam affects their teaching practices and how they and their students perceive the effectiveness of the pedagogic adjustments. To this end, individual interview to five teacher…

Washback refers to the impact of a test on instruction and learning, with high-stakes tests exerting both positive and negative effects. This study examined the washback of an English exit exam (EEE) on English language learning at a Thai university where English-medium instruction is used in most academic disciplines. The EEE is an in-house…

Community colleges have been seen as a gateway into higher education and social mobility. Matriculation of students into higher education has been critical to guiding and directing the rest of their experience as a student. Not many scholars have examined the experiences of students with assessment and placement during matriculation at community…

This study examines the range of cognitive processes assessed in the English language reading literacy test as part of the Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education Examination (HKDSE), the secondary school exit test in Hong Kong. Prior studies have suggested that higher order cognitive processes are often undermined in high-stakes tests and…

This paper examines recent reforms in English-language testing in Japan using a policy distraction framework. We identify the term 'washback (effect)' and other related discourses as major distractors and investigate how 'washback' discourses have functioned as political slogans or catchphrases in policy deliberation processes and how they have…

The awarding organizations that create and administer high-stakes assessments for beginner-to-low-intermediate 16-year-old learners of French, German, and Spanish in England provide optional topic-driven word lists as guides for teachers and textbook writers. Given that these lists are developed by the awarding organizations, they exert a powerful…

Language teachers are expected to engage in classroom assessment practices and report on learners' progress aligned with proficiency standards, as well as prepare learners for external examinations. The term "language assessment literacy" (LAL) describes what the constituency of language instructors needs to know about assessment…

The study evaluated a recently postponed national test policy on the use of external agencies' English tests measuring four skills for Japanese university admission purposes. Using Kunnan's principles of fairness and justice, we generated and evaluated three claims regarding the test policy: vocabulary coverage of the tests, the justifiability of…