Competing interests of stakeholders in a policy-driven test: a sociological analysis

The operation of a large-scale test involves an array of stakeholders, each having distinct interests and concerns regarding the test’s design, administration, and impact. In this article, we adopt a sociological perspective to examine the educational and societal motives underlying two recent reforms of the College English Test (CET) in China. Launched in the 1980s during China’s opening to the world, the CET has grown into the largest language test globally, with over 20 million participants annually. In the analysis of the two cases, we scrutinized the diverse interests and concerns of stakeholders regarding these reforms, exploring their perspectives and the compromises reached through negotiation. Our case study reveals that the content and format of the CET have been significantly shaped by the evolving societal needs throughout China’s open-door policy implementation. We argue that a sociological approach illuminates the power dynamics of educational assessment reform, providing deeper insight into stakeholders’ divergent interests. This analysis contributes to our understanding of how large-scale tests operate within complex social and political contexts, balancing multiple stakeholder priorities.