Ebook: Primer on Large-Scale Assessments of Educational Achievement

To improve their education systems, countries around the world have increasingly initiated national largescaleassessment programs or participated in international or regional large-scale assessment studies forthe first time. Well-constructed large-scale assessments can provide credible information on studentachievement levels, which, in turn, can promote better resource allocation to schools, stronger educationservice delivery, and improved learning outcomes.The World Bank developed this Primer on Large-Scale Assessments of Educational Achievement as a firststopresource for those wanting to understand how to design, administer, analyze, and use the resultsfrom these assessments of student achievement. The book addresses frequently asked questions frompeople working on large-scale assessment projects and those interested in making informed decisionsabout them. Each chapter introduces a stage in the assessment process and offers advice, guidelines, andcountry examples. This book also reports on emerging trends in large-scale assessment and providesupdated information on regional and international large-scale assessment programs.DIRK HASTEDT, Executive Director of the International Association for the Evaluation of EducationalAchievement (IEA)"A special feature of the publication is that it not only gives an overview of technical specifications, but alsoincludes examples from around the world on how countries are conducting large-scale assessments, whatthey found, and how the results were used. With this perspective, the Primer on Large-Scale Assessments ofEducational Achievement is an excellent and easy-to-read publication to get a comprehensive overview oflarge-scale assessments and how and why they are conducted.+?SILVIA MONTOYA, Director of UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UNESCO UIS)"If you are responsible for learning assessment in a country and are searching for a comprehensive, yetreadable, guide on large-scale assessment, this is your book. Extremely well structured and written, thisprimer is easy to follow, and makes points clearly and concisely. It is an excellent resource that exploresthe steps for a good large-scale assessment with examples from all international large-scale assessmentprograms.+?ANDREAS SCHLEICHER, Director for the Directorate of Education and Skills and Special Advisor onEducation Policy to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development''s (OECD) Secretary-General"Many countries have joined international educational assessments to benchmark quality, equity, andefficiency in their education systems. But what does it take to design and implement those efforts welland to draw value from this to help students learn better, teachers teach better, and schools to work moreeffectively? This Primer on Large-Scale Assessments of Educational Achievement helps policy makers andtheir technical teams to find answers to these questions.+?ANDREI VOLKOV, Director of the Institute for Public Strategy, Moscow School of ManagementSKOLKOVO"In 2008, when the Russia Education Aid for Development (READ) Program was launched, we determinedits main goal as the improvement of the quality of basic education. Today, the READ Program keepssetting trends as the largest Russian initiative promoting educational assessment. Approaches developedwithin the READ Program, from building institutional and expert capacity to influencing educationalreforms, have proven their efficacy in many countries. The Primer on Large-Scale Assessments of EducationalAchievement brings together in a practical format the best experience and case studies in conductingassessments under the READ Program. An especially important feature of the book is an integratedcapacity building component, which makes it a practical tutorial ready for use in different culturalcontexts. Through this book, we hope that our collective experience gathered during READ will be widelyshared, bringing us closer to achievement of the Sustainable Development Goal on education.+? evelopment Goal on Education.+?