In Italy, the creation in 2004 of the National Institute for the Evaluation of the Education System (INVALSI) led to the development of national student assessments since 2008. Similarly, in Ontario (Canada), the creation of the Education Quality and Accountability Office in 1996 was associated with the development of standardised student assessment to provide accountability and a gauge of quality in Ontario’s publicly funded education system. Functions of evaluation and assessment agencies may include technical leadership (e.g. in developing evaluation instruments, guidelines, education indicators), implementation of evaluation and assessment procedures (e.g. national student assessments), the monitoring of the education system, the introduction of innovations on the basis of research results, the development of capacity for evaluation and assessment across the system, knowledge management (of results produced by evaluation and assessment activities) and the promotion of an evaluation culture. Although educational evaluation within school systems is not a recent concern, it has traditionally focussed mostly on the assessment of students.