The paper aims to explore and explain what the constitutive effects of measurement and standard setting practices are in the increasing policy convergence between the EC’s Directorate General Education and Culture (DG EAC) and the OECD; the latter -through PISA and other international tests- has become an influential actor in education policy in Europe and globally. In other words, rather than focus on the top-down movement of policy from the international to the national level, this paper aims to identify the effects of ‘governing by numbers’ in constituting a transnational education policy field.
Despite an almost hostile history between them, there is apparent convergence in the agendas of both organisations; this is a convergence of evaluative technologies as well as of policy direction and content. The paper aims to investigate the role of measurement in this emergent and increasing collaboration. It builds on research on the construction of the OECD Programme for International Assessment of Adult Competences (PIAAC) (ESRC-funded 2010-2012).Findings from that study show that there has been increasing collaboration between the two organisations; we will expand on these findings by discussing the two organisations' relationship both over time (2000-2014) and through a diversity of instruments (international comparative testing, country reports and others).
