7.1 Features That a National Large-Scale Assessment Can Highlight

administration) and emphasize high-level results. The report should describe overall student performance on the assessment, differences in performance between relevant student subgroups (for example, between boys and girls or between urban and rural students) and, where applicable, changes in performance levels from the last time the assessment was administered. The report could also include information regarding contextual factors that impact student achievement. The report should balance accessibility to a nontechnical audience with the need to provide sufficiently detailed information about the assessment objectives, how the assessment was conducted, its key findings, and policy implications.

OBJECTIVES The main objectives of the national large-scale assessment should be clearly stated in simple language for a broad audience. Readers of the report should be informed about the questions the assessment is intended to answer, as well as the policy goals and objectives the assessment was designed to inform. Box 7.1 lists some of the main features of education systems about which a national assessment can provide useful information (Kellaghan, Greaney, and Murray 2009).

METHODS How the national large-scale assessment was designed to answer policy makers’ questions and meet the study objectives should be clearly stated. This section may describe the standards and procedures followed to ensure the quality of the assessment tools and the data collection process. Readers should also know the

BOX 7.1. Features That a National Large-Scale Assessment Can Highlight

Access. Obstacles to attending school, such as limited availability of places or distance of students’ homes from school. Quality. Quality of inputs to and outputs of schooling, such as resources and facilities available to support learning (responsive curricula, teacher competence, textbooks), instructional practices, student-teacher interactions, and student learning. Efficiency. Optimal use of human and financial resources, reflected in student-teacher ratios, number of students enrolled in the education system, and grade repetition rates. Equity. Provision of educational opportunities to students and attainment of parity of achievement for students, irrespective of their characteristics, such as gender, language or ethnic group membership, and geographic location.

Source: Kellaghan, Greaney, and Murray 2009.

characteristics of the students who participated in the assessment and how they were identified and selected, including any sampling procedures used to select schools and students. This information will help readers judge the overall technical quality of the assessment instruments and results.

FINDINGS The body of the report should provide a robust description of findings linked to student achievement. This section should detail what students know, understand, and can do in each of the domains or curricular areas that the assessment addressed. Student performance is often described in terms of mastery or proficiency levels within each domain, measuring actual student achievement against national learning objectives and target outcomes.

In addition to providing an aggregated summary of student achievement, the main report should explore the performance of different subgroups. The main report should address the question of how well the educational system is performing overall and whether it is serving all students equally well. For instance, depending on the purpose and design of the assessment, the report may contrast performance of urban and rural locations, different geographic regions, or different school types; results may be presented according to gender, ethnic background, or language spoken at home. The report may also include in-depth analyses of the students classified in the lower proficiency levels, what they know and can do, and where they need additional support. When appropriate, the report may explore overall trends in student achievement over time (Kellaghan, Greaney, and Murray 2009).

Discussions about factors linked to student achievement are likely to be sensitive and prone to misinterpretation by some stakeholders. When presenting these findings, the main report should augment narrative descriptions with charts, tables, and graphics. India’s 2015 and 2017 National Achievement Survey reports use a variety of visuals to highlight key findings (NCERT 2015, 2017). The graphics provide clear, concise summaries of differences in performance between groups of students (figure 7.1) and between groups of low- and high-performing states (figure 7.2). Tables display results in a compact format that makes it easy for readers to make comparisons (figure 7.3).

POLICY IMPLICATIONS While remaining factual, the report should discuss the main implications of the findings for the policy questions that motivated the assessment and the extent to which the results are evidence of the need for action. Assessment reports can contribute to a national dialogue on reforms and programs that could improve student learning outcomes and the education system as a whole. As discussed in chapter 2, findings may suggest how a country’s resources should be invested to have the greatest effect. Results from an assessment may identify a gap between the design of the national curriculum and its classroom implementation, as well as opportunities for