Considerable efforts have been made to better understand how global trends toward standards-based reforms have emerged in national education systems. Less well known, however, is the unfolding of standards-based reforms within and across federal education systems. In federal systems, national governments do not make policy unilaterally, but rather share authority with multiple orders of government. Using the concept of “global forms” to explore the pervasiveness of standards-based assessments across four diverse federations (Australia, Canada, Germany, and the United States), this article aims to illuminate the roles that subnational governments play in the assemblage of standards-based education reforms. We argue that three key roles played by subnational governments are apparent in each: (1) semiautonomous laboratories of innovation, (2) coproducers of policy, and (3) venues for nongovernment actors. Our work suggests that greater attention must be paid to subnational spaces to better understand the manifestation, development, and expansion of global policy trends affecting education.

中文翻译：

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实验室、联合制片人和场地：地方政府在四个联盟基于标准的改革中的作用

为了更好地了解基于标准的改革的全球趋势是如何在国家教育系统中出现的，已经做出了相当大的努力。然而，鲜为人知的是在联邦教育系统内和跨联邦教育系统展开基于标准的改革。在联邦体制中，国家政府不是单方面制定政策，而是与多个政府部门共享权力。使用“全球形式”的概念来探索四个不同联邦（澳大利亚、加拿大、德国和美国）基于标准的评估的普遍性，本文旨在阐明地方政府在标准组合中所起的作用基础教育改革。我们认为，地方政府扮演的三个关键角色在每个角色中都很明显：（1）半自主创新实验室，(2) 政策的联合制定者，以及 (3) 非政府行为者的场所。我们的工作表明，必须更加关注次国家空间，以更好地了解影响教育的全球政策趋势的表现、发展和扩张。