Providing a comprehensive introduction to the topic of accountability and datafication in the governance of education, the World Yearbook of Education 2021 considers global policy dynamics and policy enactment processes.

Sotiria Grek is Professor in European and Global Education Governance at the School of Social and Political Science, University of Edinburgh, UK.

Christian Maroy is Emeritus Professor of Sociology at UCLouvain, Belgium and a researcher for GIRSEF, a research centre of which he is the co-founder and former director.

Antoni Verger is Associate Professor of Sociology at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), Spain and a research fellow at the Catalan Institution for Research and Advanced Studies (ICREA).

Introduction: Accountability and Datafication in Education: Historical, Transnational and Conceptual perspectives Part I: The global/local construction of accountability and datafication Chapter 1: The Construction of Worlds. On the Function and Fiction of quantified data in education policy Chapter 2: The construction of SDG4: Reconciling democratic imperatives and technocratic expertise in the making of global education data? Chapter 3: Re-engineering the infrastructure of performance-based accountability. For-profit philanthropy, learning sciences, and automated education at the Chan-Zuckerberg Initiative Chapter 4: Between Fairness Optimization and 'Inequalities of Dataveillance' - the Emergence and Transformation of Social Indices in German School Monitoring and Management Chapter 5: Capacity Building as the 'Third Translation': The Story of PISA-D in Cambodia Part II: Global discourse and national translations of performance-based accountability policies Chapter 6: National Testing and Accountability in the Scandinavian Welfare States: Education Policy Translations in Norway, Denmark and Sweden Chapter 7: Accountability and Datafication in Francophone Contexts: A Reinforcing Cognitive State Still Challenged by Local Actors Chapter 8: National Standardized Assessments in South Africa: Policy and Power Play Chapter 9: Accountability Policies in Chinese Basic Education: the Long March towards Quality and Evidence Chapter 10: Performance-based accountability in Brazil : Trends of Diversification and Integration Part III: Enactments and effects of accountability and datafication: controversies and critical issues Chapter 11: A Sociological Analysis of the Effects of Standards-Based Accountability Policies on the Distribution of Educational Outcomes Chapter 12: Siren song: performance-based accountability systems, effectiveness, and equity. Evidence from PISA in education systems in Europe and Canada. Chapter 13: In and out of the 'pressure cooker': Schools' varying responses to accountability and datafication Chapter 14: The Performative to the Datafied Teacher Subject: Teacher Evaluation in Tennessee Chapter 15: Enactments and resistances to globalizing testing regimes and performance-based accountability in the USA