Creating Inclusive Educational Spaces: Assessing Assessment in a Post-Pandemic World

This paper traces the shutdown of large-scale assessment in two countries – the United States and Denmark – as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and, in the case of Denmark, a shutdown that was also due to scientific and political debate on the accuracy and purpose of the national tests. These two countries, which have complicated histories with large-scale assessment and inclusion of diverse students (Engsig & Johnstone, 2015), were forced to adjust their testing agendas during 2020, a tumultuous political year in both countries due to the pandemic and domestic political events. This paper seeks to explore what divergent and convergent pathways Denmark and the United States could take in regard to large-scale assessment, particularly in regard to educational inclusion and diversity. Large-scale testing regimes at once delimit the imaginary of inclusion and actively promote segregation and ability-based tracking, but at the same time represent a space for conceptual inclusion in educational achievement (Schuelka, 2013). Given these complexities, we provide policy scenarios on assessments in a post-pandemic world that could hold the potential of transcending the paradoxes presented by the alignment of the elitist educational agendas of assessments on the one hand, and the agenda of inclusion on the other hand. To do so, we chronicle this recent history then evaluate four future scenarios for the countries through the lens of educational values in complex systems theory (Schuelka & Kezang Sherab, 2022), as well as Salamon’s (2000) framework for policy evaluation framework. One future scenario is to continue with large-scale assessments but utilize them to locate systemic inequalities. A second scenario is to move away from standardized tests and utilize portfolios or projects for assessments. A third scenario is to eliminate summative assessments, but use all forms of assessment for formative feedback and continuous learning. A fourth scenario is to move to individualized learning plans that strive toward individualized goals.