"Authentic Assessment" has obviously attracted a great deal of attention as evidenced by the recent "Nationwide academic achievement and study situation survey" that was stimulated by PISA in Europe and America. When performance assessment based on "Authentic Assessment" that criticized "Standardized tests" is adopted in the academic achievement survey, it faces the crisis of establishing a raison d'etre. In the dominant discourse, the ideal method for performance assessment in academic achievement surveys was investigated, and "consequential validity", "equity", and "moderation" were examined in regard to their potential to overcome this obstacle to further development of the discourse.

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The national achievement test has been carried out in Japan since 2007. In this paper, I consider the legality of the national achievement test referring to the Supreme Court decision in the Hokkaido National Achievement Test case (1976). In this case, the Supreme Court examined the legality of the national achievement test carried out by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) in the 1960s and permitted MEXT to carry out such tests under the following conditions. (1) MEXT can implement the national achievement test, if the purpose of exercising such a test is not beyond the tasks of MEXT. (2) Although MEXT can give advice to improve the education practices, it should not control the educational practices which are delegated to each school based on the test's results. MEXT must respect the autonomous management of each school. (3) Although MEXT can request the boards of education to participate in the national achievement test program, it should not force them. MEXT explains the purpose of today's national achievement test as follows. (1) To collect the results of the national achievement test to examine the educational practices in each school and the education policy and education administration of each city, and to clarify the goals which schools and boards of education must achieve. (2) To make schools and boards of education recognize their own present status, problems to be resolved and goals to achieve, and establish the PDCA cycle to improve compulsory education. (3) To make schools utilize the test results to improve their practices and student's learning conditions. Some people underline (2) and (3) above, to recognize this PDCA cycle as the "management by objectives" system to improve compulsory education. But they may neglect the rest of them, such as (1) above. MEXT has the strategy to establish the PDCA cycle to control the whole nation's compulsory education system. Although each school and city may have the autonomy to PLAN and DO their educational practices and administration under this cycle, MEXT will CHECK the results of educational practices and administration based on the scores of the national achievement test and take ACTION to make schools and boards improve their practices and administration according to MEXT's policy. Moreover, to control the PLAN and DO, MEXT imposes the national educational goals to be achieved on the schools and boards of education. MEXT explains that the national achievement test is one of the studies which the Local Educational Administration Act permits MEXT to carry out. But this test is administered to play an important role in this newly constructed national control system of compulsory education. If the national achievement test will function as a part of the PDCA cycle which contributes to state control of compulsory education, such a test is not a legal investigation according to the criterion of the Supreme Court decision.

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The National Achievement Test was conducted in Japan in April 2007, incorporating common Japanese test content along with mathematical literacy content similar to PISA. The most important topics to be addressed are: What content should be included in mathematics education with regards to contemporary society? What skills should be developed? Discussions on these topics have been inadequate to date. In this paper, I survey the influence of education policy on mathematics education in Japan over the past ten years. Then, I look at the positive results that restructuring mathematics education content has had on the National Achievement Test. Section 1 discusses "achievement" in Japanese mathematics education. In research on mathematics education, researchers and teachers pay particular attention to the following points when thinking about "achievement": What are important mathematical concepts that students should learn? How much should students be able to use mathematics? However, importance has also been placed on studying changes in annual test scores for conventional "achievement tests." Section 2 considers actual conditions in schools. Teachers have become perplexed because in recent years the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology has changed education policy considerably. One of the by-products of this confusion can be seen in the spread of myths of "brain science" related to claims of exaggerated learning effects from performing simple calculations. Section 3 classifies the content of the National Achievement Test into five verb categories and analyzes prominent features of each. The results showed that test (A) used conventional content, but test (B) was different. Test (B) required problem-solving and communications skills in mathematics, resembling PISA. Section 4 illustrates several cases where restructured mathematics content has shown positive educational benefits. The lessons studied involved the teaching of calculation structure and methods of calculation, and teaching the meaning of formulae used. This National Achievement Test pointed out the importance of explanation and discussion in mathematics, not just standard problems as conventional mathematics education has traditionally focused on in Japan. However, there were some issues with the test because it did not deal with the importance of quality of content in mathematics. From this point forward, it will be important to improve contents and methods of education to restructure mathematics education in Japan.

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Japanese teachers have been avoiding looking at the realities of social inequality in education. "Gakuryoku Hosho" (guarantee of basic academic standards for children in Dowa districts) in Dowa education is exceptional example that has been aiming to overcome the collective differences of the achievement among children. However, the achievement of children in Dowa districts is declining in spite of longterm efforts. These days, the difference of achievement by social class is expanding in Japan. It seems that this phenomenon is related to the declining achievement of children in Dowa districts. Why is the achievement of children in Dowa districts low? Is their falling achievement related to the expansion gap in achievement by social class? In this paper, I will review the studies on these questions. Since the 1980's, many researches on the achievement and the living condition of children in Dowa districts were carried out in western places in Japan. The "Kansai Survey" that Shimizu mentioned to the readers of this journal was one of the most important studies of that kind. The following are major findings of the survey. 1. Overall decline in achievement is accompanied by the expansion of difference in achievement. 2. The correlation between the home background and the achievement is becoming strong. 3. The decline in achievement of children in Dowa districts is more remarkable than the other children. 4. As a result, the collective difference of the achievement between Dowa children and non-Dowa children has been expanding. In section 2, I will look back on the practices and studies that are related to the guarantee of basic academic standards for children in Dowa districts. In 1965, the report of the "Doutaishin" (the council for resolution of discrimination against people in Dowa districts) recognized that the low achievement of children was related to educational and occupational attainment. However, the low achievement was very hard to address. In the 1980's, many surveys searching for the factors of the low achievement were carried out. In section 3, I will look back on the studies on the factors of the low achievement of children in Dowa districts. It was explained by the economic, socio-cultural and school factors. Recently, some researchers pointed out that the structural change of Dowa districts and the advent of consumer society are negatively influencing the achievement in Dowa districts. In section 4, I will describe the foresight of the guarantee of basic academic standards for children in Dowa districts referring to our research on effective schools. The key concept is social capital. Not only the teachers' practices in schools but also the relationships promoting trust and cooperation between school, home, and community are important for raising achievement levels. In section 5, 1 will examine theoretical and methodological issues of studies. Then, I will point out that the concept of human rights education in Japan ignores the resolution of the collective difference in achievement. We need to rank the resolution of educational inequality as an important issue for human rights education.

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New trends are emerging in the internationalization and marketization of education since the 1990s. IOs (International Organizations) or IGOs (Intergovernmental Organizations), and the market have become new forms of governance, as well as the nation state. Education policy making is affected by these three actors. The OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) has strongly influenced education policies in many industrialized countries and other countries. The education policy of the OECD is based on governance theory, globalism and neoliberalism. The OECD has collected a lot of data about education, then processed, classified, analyzed and stored the data, and finally supplied marketed education policy information. World trade, global warming, human rights, local conflicts, and even education have become major global issues and are dealt with by sovereign state actors. The EU (European Union) also is a great global actor. Credits, diplomas, certifications and other indicators of education and training have been standardized and identified beyond the borders of European countries. Many non-EU countries are joining in the 'Bologna Process' and the 'Copenhagen Process'. The OECD has cooperated with the EU in educational policy, especially in two decades. The OECD launched "PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment)" from 2000, and is monitoring educational policy of member states and others. The OECD's "DeSeCo (Definition and Selection of Competencies)" Project and Eurydice of the EU have attempted to define competencies in basic education. There is this powerful background to the PISA studies. Every country cannot ignore global rules. It is better for nation-states to take part in global relations as a global actor to solve domestic problems as well as international ones.

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