Module 1 - Minor Task 2 For: PME 826 By: Neil Westcott

Large scale assessments make an important and valuable contribution to the

educational landscape. They serve several purposes for those entities that are astute
enough to use them. One of the most important purposes of Large Scale Assessments,
or LSAs, is to identify areas of improvement in a countries education system. Another
important reason for using LSAs is to ensure equity in educational programs.
Accountability is another important reason why LSAs are beneficial to all of the
stakeholders involved.

One of the most important purposes that LSAs serve is to improve the quality of
national education systems across the globe. Published results of assessments can
often have the impact of forcing changes to outdated or unsuccessful government
educational policies. For example, some countries have realized, due to international
LSAs such as PISA, that they needed to overhaul their national curriculum. (Tobin,
Lietz, Nugroho, Vivekanandan, and Nyamkhuu, 2015) Along with these types of gains in
responsiveness to large scale data are initiatives that are used to highlight overall
academic performance, such as implementing more effective standardized testing.

Perhaps the most important reason for using large scale assessments, but perhaps the
most controversial one, is for improving accountability. While systems such as the
EQAO in Ontario, Canada, are not perfect, they do serve a function that no other form
of assessment is able to do. What provincial or national assessments do is provide a
public talking point for issues related to education. (DePascale, 2003) Without them,
discussions abut standards and practices in education would be much more anecdotal
and circumstantial. Government agencies, the public and other stakeholders are entitled
to know how our education system is performing. Indeed, a significant percentage of the
population think that increasing accountability is important in improving educational
outcomes for students. (Creswell, Schwanter and Waters, 2015)

Another crucial aspect of large-scale assessment use is to ensure equity amongst

individuals in a population. There are several subgroups that have been historically
disadvantaged and large-scale assessments help to balance those inequities.
Assessments can help monitor progress or highlight issues that impact on girls, children
in rural areas, or financially disadvantaged students.(Tobin, Lietz, Nugroho,
Vivekanandan, and Nyamkhuu, 2015) Without large-scale assessments, it would be
more difficult to document problems within these sub-groups or quantify how dire a
need it might be help the students that populate them.

While many people take issue with the use, and sometimes abuse, of large-scale
standardized testing, they remain, at worst, a necessary evil. Large-scale assessments
serve an important and vital function for steering curriculum improvement. LSAs also
help to safeguard everyones interests in the struggle for equity in the 21st century.
Lastly, they bring an accountability to education systems that has been sorely missing in
the past. Education has progressed exponentially in the past few decades and the
increased use of large-scale assessments has played a monumental part.
Module 1 - Minor Task 2 For: PME 826 By: Neil Westcott

References

Cresswell, J., U. Schwanter and C. Waters (2015), A Review of International Large-

Scale Assessments in Education : Assessing Component Skills and Collecting
Contextual Data, PISA, The World Bank, Washington, D.C./OECD Publishing, Paris.
http:dx.doi.org/10.1787/9789264248373-en

DePascale, Charles A., (2003) The Ideal Role of Large-Scale Testing in a

Comprehensive Assessment System, National Center for the Improvement of
Educational Assessment. Journal of Applied Testing Technology http://
www.jattjournal.com/index.php/atp/article/view/48343

Tobin, Mollie; Lietz, Petra; Nugroho, Dita; Vivekanandan, Ramya; and Nyamkhuu,
Tserennadmid (2015). "Using large-scale assessments of students' learning to inform
education policy: Insights from the Asia-Pacific region." Melbourne Vic: Australian
Council for Educational Research (ACER) http://research.acer.edu.au/
monitoring_learning/21