Works Begins on International Assessment

By Julie A. Miller

Washington--Representatives from 23 nations met here recently to begin devising an international assessment mechanism that proponents hope will enable educators to make meaningful comparisons between the goals and performance of nations' education systems.

The November conference was sponsored jointly by the Education Department and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, an association of 24 Western, developed nations that serves as a forum for a variety of joint discussions and projects.

Education Department officials, who proposed the initiative more than a year ago, said their push for valid international data is a necessary complement to increased domestic interest in measuring the success or failure of the American education system--as well as to the department's own aim of holding educators...