National Standards, International Tests and Classroom-Based Assessments in Latin

America

PREAL Working Group on Standards and Assessment

54th Annual Conference of the Comparative and International Education Society

Chicago, March 3, 2010.

Working group objectives

• contribute to improving the quality and relevance of assessment concepts and practices – both external and school-based – and to extend, consolidate, legitimate and utilize the space they´ve already occupied in policy and program definition in Latin American countries, and

• Promote the discussion and generation of consensus with respect to content and performance standards, still scarcely developed in the region.

The WG today

1. Over 2000 registered members from almost all LA countries, except for about 100 from the US, Canada and European countries.

2. 26% public sector officers or technicians, 25% school personnel, 15% higher education staff, 11% NGOs, 5% students, 4% assessment specialists

3. A multidisciplinary, 8-member Steering Committee including assessment specialists, academics and policy makers

4. A dozen frequent collaborators

Working Group activities

1. Studies (main challenges, dissemination of test results, role of the press, costs, standards processes, classroom-based assessment)

2. Website (links to national and international test reports and supporting documentation, research papers using test results, conceptual and methodological papers on assessment and standards policies and practices, national curricula and standards, press coverage of testing issues, our own activities)

3. Network newsletter and electronic bulletin

4. Electronic fora on key controversial topics

5. Seminars, conferences, workshops

6. Publication of study results, primers, position statement

7. Informal exchanges with members and others

8. Information clearinghouse

http://http://www.preal.orgwww.preal.org

Go to “Actividades”Go to “Actividades”

Go to “Grupos de Trabajo – Estándares y Go to “Grupos de Trabajo – Estándares y Evaluación”Evaluación”

http://www.preal.org/Grupo2.asp?http://www.preal.org/Grupo2.asp?Id_Grupo=3Id_Grupo=3

Today

• Classroom-based and External Assessments in Latin American Primary Schools. Pedro Ravela, Beatriz Picaroni and Graciela Loureiro Instituto de Evaluación de la Universidad Católica del Uruguay

• Learning Standards Development in Five Latin American Countries. Guillermo Ferrer. Universidad Torcuato Di Tella, Argentina.

• Sixth-grade Student Employment and Academic Achivement: SERCE results from Chile, Colombia, Ecuador and Perú. David Post. Pennsylvania State University and FLACSO, Quito.

• National Policy Implications of International Test Results in Latin America: The Case of Six Countries Participating in the OECD´s PISA and UNESCO´s SERCE. Felipe Martínez Rizo. Universidad de Aguas Calientes, México

• Discussants: Laurence Wolff and Gilbert Valverde