How could the technicality arising from eleven percent of students beingexcluded from a PISA test in Sweden trigger a polarized debate followedby investigations by both the OECD and national authorities? Thisquestion is explored in the study by drawing on discursiveinstitutionalism, especially the concept of normative background ideas,communicative discourse, and the “power in ideas”. Communicativediscourses can be referred to as discourses explained by logics ofposition and logics of ideas. The normative background ideas arerelated to a critique or acceptance of receiving a high number ofimmigrants during a short period of time a few years before the 2018PISA test was conducted. The concluding reflection poses the questionsof at what point it is reasonable for newly arrived students toparticipate in the PISA test and whether the PISA test really measuresthe quality of the school system, as suggested by the OECD.