FWE congratulates Planning Committee member, Randy Bennett on receiving…

2020 Award Recipient

Randy E. Bennett
Educational Testing Service

Dr. Randy Bennett holds the Norman O. Frederiksen Chair in Assessment Innovation at the Educational Testing Service.  During much of his career at ETS, Dr. Bennett has worked on applying insights from cognitive psychology to improving educational assessment with a special emphasis on linking assessment to instruction. For over a decade he directed CBAL—a project on Cognitively Based Assessment of, for, and as Learning at ETS where he has developed a unified model for formative and summative assessments in reading, writing and science. Dr. Bennett is a prolific scholar having edited or co-edited seven books, thirty book chapters and seventy journal articles as well as scores of technical reports. In addition to this award, he was elected as president of both the National Council of Measurement in Education and the International Association for Educational Assessment.

Read More – https://www.aera.net/About-AERA/Awards/E-F-Lindquist-Award

Named in honor of an outstanding scholar and researcher, this annual award is presented jointly by the American Educational Research Association and ACT in recognition of outstanding applied or theoretical research in the field of testing and measurement. The award is meant to acknowledge a body of research of an empirical, theoretical, or integrative nature rather than a single study. Although the research is not required to have led directly to improved educational practices, it should nevertheless be rich in suggestions for additional research that does hold such promise. Particular emphasis will be given to research that has advanced the companion goals of greater understanding and improved use of testing and measurement techniques. Awardees may include individuals conducting research in a broad array of disciplines, such as education and psychology. 

The winner of the award will be invited to give the E. F. Lindquist Award Lecture at the following Annual Meeting. An article emanating from the lecture will be considered for publications in the Journal of Educational and Behavioral Statistics.

Before 1987, the Award recognized only outstanding research in college student development. In 1987 and subsequent years it acquired a broader scope of recognition.

Forum for World Education and ETS Announce Collaboration to…

The Forum for World Education (FWE) and ETS (Educational Testing Service) have agreed to collaborate to bring ETS’s unique blend of expertise in assessment, research, and analysis to support education agencies around the world. Working with FWE, ETS will assist education ministries and their affiliated examination agencies in using advances in the learning sciences, technology, and educational measurement to make assessment more responsive to the needs of educators, students, parents and policymakers.

“We are excited to be working with ETS, an organization that has invented so much of what is used around the world in assessment today. In these unprecedented times, they continue to innovate toward a future of assessments that not only measure learning, but also helps to guide and directly contribute to it,” said Cheng Davis, Secretary General of FWE.

Through this collaboration, ETS and FWE will help organizations in many areas, including: moving assessments to digital delivery; establishing remote proctoring; measuring social-emotional learning; applying new and existing analysis techniques to improve the fairness and validity of tests; capitalizing on big data; helping teachers develop their formative assessment practices; and measuring learning processes and growth in student thinking.

”The pandemic has posed many challenges for education and more specifically, educational assessment, with a post-pandemic era undoubtedly bringing more,” said Kadriye Ercikan, Vice President of Research and Measurement Sciences at ETS. “However, with these challenges come opportunities for us to be able to help agencies around the world improve what they do in order to increase public trust and maximize their impact on society. We look forward to working with FWE to continue to make a positive impact on learning and teaching.”

UPenn pledges $100 million to the School District of…

Congratulations to University of Pennsylvania President Amy Gutmann, Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney, School Board President Joyce Wilkerson, and Superintendent of the School District of Philadelphia William R. Hite Jr., on their announcement today that Penn will contribute $100 million to the School District of Philadelphia, representing an unprecedented commitment to the City and its public schoolchildren. This is the largest private contribution to the School District in its history.

Penn’s $100 million contribution to the School District—$10 million annually for 10 years—will be used to remediate environmental hazards, including asbestos and lead, in our public school buildings. This funding will have an immediate impact, supplementing the ongoing efforts of the City and District, and enabling them to dramatically accelerate and expand their response to environmental concerns in our public schools.

“Nothing is more important than the health and welfare of our children, and few things are more crucial to a community than the safety and quality of its public schools,” said President Gutmann. “When Philadelphia’s schools and schoolchildren succeed, all Philadelphia succeeds. We are proud to be able to partner with our City and School District to significantly improve the learning environment for Philadelphia’s schoolchildren in a way that will have a long-lasting impact on the health, safety, and wellbeing of our entire City. This historic commitment by the University and Penn Medicine will help support a most critical and immediate need that will benefit generations of Philadelphia students, their teachers, and school staff.”

Read More: https://penntoday.upenn.edu/news/penn-pledges-100-million-school-district-philadelphia

Fazheng Group’s 2020 Integrate to Innovate Forum

The Integrate to Innovate Education Forum is an international education event initiated by Fazheng Group with the support of China Education Association for International Exchange (CEAIE) and the Ministry of Education’s National Center for School Curriculum and Textbook Development. It has been held annually since 2016. Adhering to the concept of innovation, global focus and joint development, the Forum is committed to strengthening the connection between professionals across all fields and promoting exchanges and cooperation in international education.

Read More: The 2020 Integrate to Innovate Education Forum Brochure

Educational Assessment: What to Watch in a Rapidly Changing…

This article is a written adaptation of the Presidential address I gave at the NCME annual conference
in April 2018. The article describes my thoughts on the future of assessment. I discuss eleven likely
characteristics of future tests and, for each characteristic, why I think it is important and what to
watch with respect to it. Next, I outline what is unlikely to change. The article concludes with a
comment about the probable state of education 10 years on and what that state might mean for
members of the assessment community.

Randy E. Bennett, Educational Testing Service

Article: The Economic Impacts of Learning Losses

Power Point Presentation: Corona Learning Losses

A framework to guide an education response to the…

Developing an education strategy during the coronavirus crisis

The result of a joint OECD-Harvard Graduate School of Education rapid assessment of education responses to the coronavirus pandemic in almost 100 countries, this report provides policy makers with a framework to develop plans to ensure disruptions to education are minimised during the crisis.

Download full report:

A framework to guide an education response to the COVID-19 Pandemic of 2020 – English

A framework to guide an education response to the COVID-19 Pandemic of 2020 – Chinese

Educational Research and Innovation: Back to the Future of…

2020, this evocative year of hindsight and foresight, has humbled us with a global shock: the COVID-19
pandemic. We have been reminded that, despite the best laid plans, the truth is that the future likes to
surprise us. To prepare our education systems for what may come, we have to consider not only the
changes that appear most probable, but also the ones that we are not expecting.

There are always multiple versions of the future – some are assumptions, others hopes and fears, or even
signals that something is already changing. Back to the future of education: Four OECD Scenarios for
Schooling provides a set of scenarios on the future of schooling to support long-term strategic thinking in education. These scenarios, which build on the 2001 edition, show us that there is not a single path into the future, but many.

This volume is a companion volume to the Trends Shaping Education series, a triannual publication that
highlights key global megatrends and their potential impact on education. While megatrends focus on
patterns from the past to inspire thinking about the future, scenarios allow us to consider newly emerging patterns and possibilities.

A key question for thinking about the future of education is: To what extent are our current structures
helping or hindering our vision? Put another way, if today we were to meet with a Martian, freshly arrived on planet earth and looking for tips on designing their own education system, what would we suggest?

Would we suggest starting with schools and schooling as we know them now and advise modernising and fine-tuning the system, the conceptual equivalent of reconfiguring windows and doors of a house? Or would we rather recommend an entirely different way to use the people, spaces, time and technology? Whowould be involved in these processes of transformation, and how much of the lifespan would it encompass (infancy? early childhood? adulthood, aligned to labour market? Or lifelong, including learning for our eldest seniors at 80 and 90+ years, a growing cohort as our populations age?)?

The path forward is likely a combination of these two approaches. Revisioning and transforming education is a powerful tool, pushing us to think outside of the box and to go beyond our current limitations. So too is building on what we have, modernising the trusted institutions that play such an important role in the social fabric of our communities and societies.

By using schools and schooling as a starting point, this volume and the four scenarios within it open the
door to both approaches. They can be used to inspire, to dream, to transform. They can be used to
future-proof systems and stress-test against unexpected shocks. Above all, they push us to move beyond
complacency and easy solutions, presenting us with the tensions and paradoxes inherent in all our systems and which we must address. We hope you enjoy the journey. Use them in good health.

Andreas Schleicher
Director for Education and Skills
Special Advisor on Education Policy to the Secretary-General

Full text: (Download PDF) – Back to the Future of Education Four Scenarios for the Future of Schooling

The Economic Impacts of Learning Losses (OECD – Eric…

The worldwide school closures in early 2020 led to
losses in learning that will not easily be made up for even
if schools quickly return to their prior performance levels.
These losses will have lasting economic impacts both on
the affected students and on each nation unless they are
effectively remediated.

While the precise learning losses are not yet known,
existing research suggests that the students in grades 1-12
affected by the closures might expect some 3 percent
lower income over their entire lifetimes. For nations, the
lower long-term growth related to such losses might yield
an average of 1.5 percent lower annual GDP for the
remainder of the century. These economic losses would
grow if schools are unable to re-start quickly.
The economic losses will be more deeply felt by
disadvantaged students. All indications are that students
whose families are less able to support out-of-school
learning will face larger learning losses than their more
advantaged peers, which in turn will translate into deeper
losses of lifetime earnings.

The present value of the economic losses to nations reach
huge proportions. Just returning schools to where they
were in 2019 will not avoid such losses. Only making
them better can. While a variety of approaches might be
attempted, existing research indicates that close attention
to the modified re-opening of schools offers strategies
that could ameliorate the losses. Specifically, with the
expected increase in video-based instruction, matching
the skills of the teaching force to the new range of tasks
and activities could quickly move schools to heightened
performance. Additionally, because the prior disruptions
are likely to increase the variations in learning levels within
individual classrooms, pivoting to more individualised
instruction could leave all students better off as schools
resume.

As schools move to re-establish their programmes even as
the pandemic continues, it is natural to focus considerable
attention on the mechanics and logistics of safe re-opening.
But the long-term economic impacts also require serious
attention, because the losses already suffered demand
more than the best of currently considered re-opening
approaches.

Full text: (Download the PDF) – The Economic Impacts of Learning Losses

How can teachers and school systems respond to the…

By Andreas Schleicher

Director, OECD Directorate for Education and Skills

As the world becomes increasingly interconnected, so do the risks we face. The COVID-19 pandemic. Has not stopped at national borders, and affected people regardless of nationality, level of education, income or gender. But that has not been true for its consequences, which have hit the most vulnerable hardest. Education is no exception. Those from privileged backgrounds quickly found their way around closed school doors to alternative learning opportunities, supported by their parents and eager to learn. Too often, those from disadvantaged backgrounds have remained shut out if the school shuts down. So this pandemic has exposes the many inequities in our education systems – from the broadband and computers needed for online education, through the supportive environments needed to focus on learning, up to our failure to attract talented teachers to the most challenging classrooms.

But as these inequities are amplified in this time of crisis, this moment also holds the possibility that we won’t return to the status quo when things return to “normal”. It is the nature of our collective and systemic responses to the disruptions that will determine how we are affected by them. There is a lot we can do together. Where school closures are needed in the short term, we can mitigate their impact for learners, families and educators, particularly for those in the most marginalised groups, who don’t have access to digital learning resources or lack the resilience and engagement to learn on their own. We can collaborate internationally to mutualise open online educational resources and digital learning platforms, and encourage technology companies to join this effort. We can rapidly enhance digital learning opportunities for teachers and encourage teacher collaboration beyond boarders. And we can use the momentum to reshape curricula and learning environments to the needs of the 21st century.

China was hit first by Covid-19, but reacted fast. Schools were given the highest priority even when financial resources nationwide were tightening, with a ‘green channel’ ensuring quality and efficiency in rapid procurement during the emergency. The national cloud platform which China launched, offering digital learning resources to students in schools free of charge across the country, has set a good example that learning is not a place, but an activity. And it was not just the government which mobilised resources, a wide range of contributors were stepping forward to provide everything from free wi-fi and devices for students through innovative instructional systems to social support for teachers and schools. This shows how the future of education can become a whole-of-society project. This document sets out the approaches that other countries are pursuing and how far they are advanced on their way.