Monitoring of Student Achievement in Spain

Abstract

The origin of the monitoring of student achievement in Spain dates back to the 1980s, even if it was organised as a systematic activity a decade later. Since then, the system has essentially retained its institutional structure and modus operandi, despite changes in approach and in the nature of the tests applied. The system has two components: a set of national studies involving Spain’s 17 regions (labelled as autonomous communities in Spanish) and a series of international studies in which Spain has played an active role since the 1990s. Whereas the approach and characteristics of the former have changed over the years—making trend studies more difficult—the continuity and comparative nature of the latter have made them a crucial element for diagnosing the performance of the Spanish education system, despite discrepancies over data interpretation. This chapter begins by outlining developments in the monitoring of student achievement in Spain and its current status, before going on to analyse the challenges posed and potential directions for future development.