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52 stories
Week 41: Improving learning in the UAE
ACER’s collaboration with the United Arab Emirates Ministry of Education is supporting student learning and systemwide improvement.
The United Arab Emirates National Assessment Program (UAENAP) informs teachers, school and system leaders, and policy makers about the quality of educational programs in the UAE. Like all good assessments, however, it also informs students about their learning, and allows parents to monitor their child’s progress. More than that, it’s enabling ACER to provide evidence-based professional learning for educators in the UAE.
As Chris Freeman, Research Director of ACER’s Systemwide Testing program, explains, ‘While the goal of UAENAP is to assess the performance of students in Grades 3, 5, 7 and 9 in all public schools and most private schools, it’s meant we can also provide ongoing feedback to system leaders, principals and teachers based on fine-grained analysis and evaluation of student results.
‘Arabic writing is a particular area where we’re supporting schools. The criterion-based rubric, developed by ACER’s Annie Brown and local curriculum experts, is helping locally based teachers to develop their skills in assessing their students’ writing.’
UAENAP informs education at every level, Chris explains. ‘The comprehensive ministerial report gives an overview of the results of the whole program, highlighting major strengths and weaknesses at a national level. Reports at zone and school levels provide a range of data that can be manipulated using an interactive CD, so that educational leaders can obtain an overall summary but also mine down to various levels to examine trends and key issues.
‘Concise, easy-to-use class reports, grounded in a standards referenced framework, enable teachers and students to identify current achievement but also “what’s next” in the student learning journey.’
UAENAP, as Systemwide Testing’s Frances Eveleigh explains, addresses Arabic Reading, Writing and Spelling; English Reading, Writing and Spelling; Science; and Mathematics. ‘The development of each cycle of UAENAP commences with item development, panelling, refining, further panelling and finalising test forms. The ACER team works closely with UAE Ministry staff and UAE experts, with translation occurring at each step.
‘Tom Lumley’s ongoing expertise and close attention to detail, particularly in Arabic Reading, is invaluable.
'Students sit the tests in late January, with scanning, marking and analysis following, and then the reporting phase.’
The team effort brings together staff from Systemwide Testing, Assessment and Reporting, and Psychometrics and Methodology led by Yan Bibby. Alan Egbert and staff in the Dubai office manage the bulk of the logistics in the UAE, including setting up and running an online marking centre involving approximately 140 local markers supported by staff from Systemwide Testing and the ACER software team.
‘UAENAP is helping ACER ensure that learning professionals in the UAE are highly skilled, knowledgeable and engaged in excellent practice,’ says Chris. ‘It has also provided a model for future initiatives in the Middle East.’
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Week 52: State of the art psychometric and statistical analysis
Week 51: Assessing civics and citizenship
Week 50: International research into teaching and learning
GOAL 1
Learners and their needs
every learner engaged in challenging learning opportunities appropriate to their readiness and needs
GOAL 2
The Learning Profession
every learning professional highly skilled, knowledgeable and engaged in excellent practice
GOAL 3
Places of learning
every learning community well resourced and passionately committed to improving outcomes for all learners
GOAL 4
A Learning Society
a society in which every learner experiences success and has an opportunity to achieve their potential
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Pursuing Quality and Equity through Evidence
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