The aim of this symposium is to give an overview of methods, applications, and recent developments in the field of large-scale assessment. For many years, large-scale assessments have been the driving force behind new developments in educational measurement (e.g., application of item-response models). Drawing on representative samples, they provide insights into educational outcomes, their correlations with school and student background variables, and changes across assessment cycles. The four papers in this symposium examine recent methodological and content-related developments in national and international large-scale assessments, as well as their potential for educational research.

Mark Wilson (USA) discusses the relationship between large-scale assessments, small-scale testing, and standard-based assessments, and considers the methodological challenges of the longitudinal perspective. Beno Csapo (Hungary) presents first results from the Hungarian Educational Longitudinal Survey for mathematics and reading, which aims at establishing a system-wide evaluation and accountability system. Manfred Prenzel (Germany) focuses on the potential that the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) holds for educational research, and presents Germany’s longitudinal extensions to the international PISA 2003 assessment. Juergen Baumert(Germany) presents further data from Germany’s follow-up assessment to PISA 2003, focusing on teacher knowledge, teaching, and student progress within the PISA framework.