Educational development in a country largely depends on how well progress is measured, evaluated, and assessed. An effective education system needs robust quality control and monitoring mechanisms in place to efficiently evaluate the performance of the learning organizations. In recent years, considerable attention has been given to the roles of educational measurement, evaluation, and assessment with a view to improving the education systems in general and to adequately prepare the young generation to meet the ever growing demands of the 21st century in particular.
The first International Conference on Educational Measurement, Evaluation and Assessment (ICEMEA) was organized by the Emirates College for Advanced Education (ECAE) on 5–6 November 2017 in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. The conference aimed at those working in all sectors of education and training who have a keen interest in advancing their knowledge and skills in educational measurement, evaluation, and assessment. The conference brought together eminent and distinguished speakers from Australia, France, New Zealand, Singapore, United Kingdom and United States.
The present volume comprises of selected papers from the international scholars who shared their experiences during the conference and an invited paper. Each of these chapters deals with variety of issues and practices and covers recent trends in educational assessment. The international benchmarking tests such as Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) provides valuable information to students, teachers and policy makers on performance of the students, schools and education system. In Chapter 1, Peter Adams examined the PISA related programs and products, how the participating countries used PISA data and what is planned for PISA in the future. Zhang Quan presented an overview of Rasch model and item analysis and test equating process in for Matriculation English Test (MET) in China in Chapter 2.
In Chapter 3, Vincente Reyes from the University of Queensland, Australia and Charlene Tan from Nanyang Technological University in Singapore discuss the assessment reforms in high-performing education systems such as Shanghai and Singapore. In Chapter 4, Mark Russell and his colleagues share their experience on the Effecting Sustainable Change in Assessment Practice and Experience (ESCAPE) Project and project’s sustainability and transferability.
Don Klinger from the Waikato University in New Zealand presented the pitfalls and potentials of classroom and large-scale assessments to improve educational outcome of students in Chapter 5. His presentation provided an overview of previous and ongoing research that highlights not only the necessary characteristics of large-scale assessments to inform practices and policies, but also, the skills and competencies educators require to effectively use such assessment information.
In Chapter 6, Patrick Griffin and Nafisa Awwal from the University of Melbourne, Graduate School of Education extensively described about assessment of collaborative problem-solving skills. Finally, Bahar Hasirci, Didem Karakuzular and Derin Atay pointed out the importance of assessment literacy and presented a comparative study on assessment literacy among selective Turkish teachers in Chapter 7.
I am indebted to the contributors to this volume for their time and efforts to make this book a reality. I would also like to take opportunity to thank staff members of Brill | Sense Publishers, in particular, Jasmin Lange, Chief Publishing Officer, Evelien van der Veer, Assistant Editor, and Jolanda Karada, Production Editor, for their tireless dedication in the publication process. It is hoped that this book will be a valuable resource for school administers, teachers, graduate students and researchers to keep up with the current development and trends, emerging issues and practices in educational assessment.