The 2015-2030 sustainable development goal is the first developmental goal to include targets for educational equity and learning outcomes. Current globalized testing culture suggests the need to develop standardized literacy and numeracy measures for monitoring learning at the international stage. The underlying study has critically assessed the large scale assessment tests and has highlighted limitations associated with each test (including PISA 2012, PIRLS 2011, TIMSS 2011, SACMEQ 2007, TERCE 2013, PASEC 2014). The study has extracted the data from regional and international assessment tests that are widely used to monitor the progress towards attainment of Sustainable Development Goals.  For this purpose, the study has assessed the ability of students to reach minimum proficiency level in science, mathematics and reading. The research has attempted to prepare comparable proficiency scores for around fifty countries by extracting and analyzing the additional data and evaluating the major indicators in the education sector. Moreover, there are certain limitations associated with the study. The research has not included hybrid or national assessments, and for the ease of analysis, only most recent large scale assessment tests have been included. The findings have suggested a need to introduce some standardized assessments to encourage the collaboration among different organizations. The main purpose behind the execution of research was to provide support and practical guidance to international organizations and policymakers to design, develop and implement largely standardized scale assessment tests that can accurately measure the educational equity and learning outcomes across the world. 

Jizhou Liu, Songjiang Duan, Lin Liang. How the Large Scale Assessment Tests Help in Achieving Sustainable Development Goals: A Critical Perspective. International Journal of Frontiers in Sociology (2021), Vol. 3, Issue 21: 47-65. https://doi.org/10.25236/IJFS.2021.032107.

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