No Data Set Left Behind? Reporting on Sustainable Development Goal 4 and the Politics of Data Integration

• In Event: Measurement and Evaluation Research From a Global Perspective

Abstract

The Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG4) agenda adds to a long list of global efforts to support a universal right to education. One of the most significant shifts entailed by SDG4 is the focus on learning outcomes and the emergence of a consensus on the centrality of learning measurement. Accordingly, the production of globally-comparable learning data has become an institutional priority for international education agencies. However, the production of such data has been far from straightforward. This paper grapples with the difficulties encountered in the process – which have not been exclusively technical, but stem also from the need to reconcile the multiple (and sometimes conflicting) agendas of the different international organizations and data-suppliers partaking in the production of global learning metrics.

Author

• Clara Fontdevila, University of Glasgow