Assessing School Students’ Academic Achievement and Education Policy in the Context of Regional Development

Assessing student academic achievement has long been the norm in modern education. However, both domestic and international researchers note a gap between the results of student assessments and the directions of current educational policy. According to regional diagnostic studies conducted in 2023 among 8th-grade students in the Moscow Region, significant differences in the results of student assessments were found at the municipal level. Along with a direct analysis of cognitive skills, it is important to consider the results of academic assessments as an indicator of the success or failure of a particular municipality or educational institution. When developing educational policy guidelines, it is necessary to combine testing results with an analysis of the socioeconomic characteristics of specific municipalities, which will improve the effectiveness of regional educational policy.