Patterns of Social Control in Assessment Practices in Canadian Frameworks for Accountability in Education

Abstract

This article identifies institutional patterns and modes of social control evident in assessment practices across the evaluative contexts in Canada's 10 provinces and two territories. Emergent patterns show loose linkage of provincial-level direction with classroom practice, but also assessment as an instrument of normative control, arm's-length oversight promoting system learning, and enhanced accountability and professional autonomy through process evaluation. These emergent institutional patterns suggest that assessment has become a very political and visible part of educational reform in all provinces. Despite strong provincial control over education, there is also clear evidence of a growing national agenda for accountability. Assessment has come to play an equally critical role in the provision for individual and systemic control in many educational policy frameworks. The institutional paterns reflected in changed roles, organizational forms, and technologies associated with new assessment strategies have created an intensified climate of accountability in Canadian education.