1. Learning Assessments Regional and Global Initiatives
Dr John Cresswell
SEA-PLM
Penang, October, 2014

2. Overview Global Assessments PIRLS, TIMSS, PISA, ICCS, EGRA
Regional Assessments
SACMEQ, PASEC, LLECE
ASER/Uwezo
Learning Metrics Taskforce

3. Change happens - Korea
In Korea, in the 1950s, the literacy rate was 22% and less than 20% of children attended secondary school.
Education reforms undertaken by Korea led to them having one of the most advanced education systems in the world.

4. Approximate percentage of adults with high school qualifications
Change happens - Korea
Approximate percentage of adults with high school qualifications 13 1 1 27

5. Change happens - Finland
Until the late 1960s, in Finland most children left public school after six years. Some children went to private schools, academic grammar schools or folk schools. At that time only the privileged and fortunate were exposed to quality education.
A series of reforms was undertaken over many years and in 2000 Finland achieved at the highest level in PISA.

6. Education reform cycle
Assessment is just one part of the process of educational improvement.
Simply doing more assessment will not, by itself, improve educational outcomes of students.

7. Reform cycle Reform discussion Policy dialogue and decisions
Education reform is not a straight line activity
Reform discussion
Policy dialogue and decisions
Student assessment and reporting
Policy implementation
Teaching and learning

8. Regional and International Assessments
In 1964, the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) conducted the first internationally comparative study in mathematics; 12 countries participated.
By 2009, about 70 per cent of the countries in the world participated in some form of regional or international assessment program.
Since the 1980s, the number of national assessment programs has also increased.

9. PIRLS (Progress in Reading Literacy Study)
International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA)
Sample – grade 4.
Subject – reading.
Focus – curriculum.
Other – student, parent, teacher and school questionnaires.

10. PIRLS 2011 The boundaries indicate the 95% confidence limits
The centre line is the estimated mean for the country
500 is the mean international score

11. TIMSS (Trends in Mathematics and Science Study)
International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA)
Sample – grade 4 and grade 8.
Subjects – mathematics and science.
Focus – curriculum.
Other – student, teacher and school questionnaires.

12. ICCS – the International Civics and Citizenship Study
Preparing young people to undertake their roles as citizens
Two dimensions of civics & citizenship
Student knowledge and understanding
Attitudes, perceptions and activities
Focus of ICCS reporting
International comparisons
Variations within countries
Factors explaining variation

14. PISA – Programme for International Student Assessment
Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)
Reading, mathematics, science
Also problem solving, financial literacy
Student and school questionnaires
Sample is 15-year-olds
72 systems in PISA 2015
Focus in preparedness for the future – ie not curriculum based.
The OECD also conducts TALIS and PIAAC.

15. EGRA - Early Grade Reading Assessment
US AID/RTI
Also Early Grade Mathematics Assessment (EGMA)
Implemented in over 70 countries in 100 languages.

16. SACMEQ - Southern and Eastern African Consortium for Monitoring Educational Quality
15 countries; since 1995.
Compares student performance, and the factors associated with that performance.
Capacity building has been a major focus of SACMEQ

17. LLECE Latin American Laboratory for the Evaluation of Quality in Education
15 countries; since 1997.
second assessment (SERCE) study in 2007.
TERCE followed.

18. PASEC - Programme for the Analysis of Educational Systems of CONFEMEN
The Conference of Education Ministers of Countries which include French as a Language of Communication (CONFEMEN)
First assessment 1991; 24 participating countries in a series of assessments.
The first phase of PASEC had tests at the beginning and end of grades 2 and 5, but is now moving into a new phase with just one test in each of grades 2 and 6.

19. ASER and Uwezo Household based assessments.
The Annual Status of Education Report (ASER): implemented annually in India for the last ten years, 600,000 out-of-school children.
Uwezo: an ASER based assessment in Africa. Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and in the future Senegal and Mali.

20. Regional participation
PIRLS
PISA
TIMSS
ICCS
EGRA
PASEC
Country
2001
2006
2011
2000
2003
2009
2012
1995
1999
2007 *
Brunei
Cambodia •
Indonesia
Lao PDR
Malaysia
Myanmar
Philippines
Singapore
Timor Leste
Thailand
Vietnam

21. What do countries learn by participating?
Gauge of educational health
Calls to action when results surprise
PISA: eg Germany, Japan
Setting of national expectations that are consistent with performance throughout the world

22. What do countries learn by participating?
Influence on curriculum orientation and content
TIMSS (the role of statistics, probability and data in the mathematics curriculum)
PISA and its literacy orientation
Non-continuous text as an element of reading
Capacity development
Assessment task development
Research design, sampling, scaling, analysis…

23. What do countries learn by participating?
Trend information
Is our performance increasing or decreasing?
Have gender differences narrowed?
Has participation of girls increased?
Policy development
Inform options for policy
Identify correlates of outcomes (eg teacher qualifications, resource access)

24. LMTF - Learning Metrics Taskforce Post-2015 Development Goals
The overarching goal of the Learning Metrics Task Force is to catalyse a shift in the global conversation on education from a focus on simply access to a focus on access plus learning.
Assessment is a necessary part of the process to find out if students are learning.

26. Learning Metrics Partnership
LMTF 2.0
Learning Metrics Partnership
Strategic partnership between LMTF, UIS and ACER to develop common global metrics for reading and numeracy
Opportunities for alignment between SEA-PLM and the global metric
ACER is a member of the LMTF and is providing all technical support for the development of the common metrics