In recent years, digital competence has emerged as a crucial aspect of education and active citizenship. This paper presents the Italian experience of developing a standardised system for assessing the digital competence of secondary school students, based on the European DigComp 2.2 framework and integrated into the INVALSI national assessment system.

The aim was to develop a valid, reliable and comparable tool that could provide useful evidence for diagnostic and policy-making purposes. The assessment covered four key areas of DigComp: Information and Data Literacy, Communication, Digital Content Creation, and Safety.

Data and methodology:
The project used a rigorous methodological approach, which involved:
- the construction of an item bank
- psychometric modelling according to the Rasch method;
- the definition of competence levels through the Bookmark procedure;
- the collection of contextual data on access, digital habits, and the subjective perception of competence.

The structured return of results to schools and institutional stakeholders was also a key part of the project.
One distinctive feature was the use of vertical scaling techniques, which enable reliable longitudinal comparisons over time.

Main results:
Preliminary results confirm the validity of the three-level classification (basic, intermediate and advanced), providing a clear representation of e-skills. There is a significant correlation between digital and basic skills (Italian and mathematics), confirming the transversal nature of digital literacy and the importance of basic skills in developing complex skills.
Although less pronounced than for other skills, territorial differences remain, while the influence of family background is clearly evident: students from a higher socio-cultural background demonstrate significantly better digital performance. The 'Safety' area is the least mastered and is particularly critical, with potentially significant repercussions for digital citizenship.

Conclusions and perspectives:
The results reinforce the need to permanently integrate digital competencies into school curricula, promoting equal access to technological resources and training for students and teachers alike. This project is a first step towards defining a national digital skills certification system in line with European digital education objectives.

Keywords: Education, digital competence, assessment.