This symposium will explore and debate new approaches being developed to measure learning globally, with the aim of raising understanding of the learning crisis, galvanising commitment, and demonstrating progress.
The UNESCO Institute of Statistics (UIS) is currently developing new tools to track progress towards the Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG4). The new vision emphasises the quality and equity of education, which were largely absent from the previous focus of getting children into school. This includes a new UIS Reporting Scale, which will provide a global scale of learning and enable comparisons to be made between different assessments, and a Learning Data Quality Framework. Following the recommendation from the Education Commission, UIS is also developing a new ‘flagship education indicator’ to easily communicate current learning levels, track progress and galvanise support for the learning crisis. These initiatives could have significant implications for measuring learning for researchers, practitioners and policy makers.
This symposium will begin with a presentation from UIS on the latest progress towards developing a global approach to measuring learning. It will address questions such as: what are the desirable features of a flagship education indicator – both political and technical? How do we ensure the indicator can be used for both advocacy and understanding? How do we ensure that the indicator is fit-for-purpose in terms of timeliness and coverage? The session will answer some of these questions and present guiding principles and possible formulations.
This will be followed by an alternative perspective, from citizen-led assessments, of assessing learning for local action, with comments on how these global and local initiatives can support each other and potential risks.. A panel of experts will then debate implications of a new global approach to measuring learning from a variety of perspectives. The objective will be to consider the future challenges and opportunities..
The debate will consider questions such as:
- How can we develop a global reporting scale which is meaningful across different contexts?
- How do we promote rigorous assessments that are comparable across diverse contexts, and recognise diversity in learners?
- How do we strike the right balance between concept validity, cross-country comparability and local precision in international and regional assessments?
- What role does the growth of citizen-led assessment have to play in this regard?
The work on learning metrics has been discussed in other forums, but it is moving quickly and this will be an opportunity to debate the latest developments. This symposium will be the first opportunity to debate advanced plans for a new Global Learning Indicator with a broad range of stakeholders , including academics, assessment developers, international development agencies, and practitioners. It will be an opportune time, coming at the point when methodologies are well developed but not yet finalised.
Format of the session:
1/ Presentation: The Global Learning Indicator: progress and challenges in developing comparable global learning data through the Universal Learning Scale [20 min]
Dr Silvia Montoya, UNESCO UIS
2/ Presentation: The role of citizen-led assessments in developing a Global Learning Indicator [10 min]
Dr Baela Raza Jamil / Dr Wilima Wadhwa / Dr Sara Ruto, People’s Action for Learning Network
3/ Panelist reflections, focusing on implementation, analysis and equity [5 minutes each - 20 min]
Professor Pauline Rose, REAL Centre, Cambridge University
Bridget Crumpton, International Commission on Financing Global Education Opportunity (The Education Commission)
Jeaniene Spink, Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER)
Ian Attfield / Sarah Hennell, Department for International Development (DFID)
4/ Facilitated debate [40 min]
