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Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER)

Developing countries

Monitoring Learning

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Full-Text Articles in Educational Assessment, Evaluation, and Research

Mid-Term Evaluation Report (Final): Global Education Monitoring (Gem) Centre Phase 3, Valerie Haugen Feb 2023

Mid-Term Evaluation Report (Final): Global Education Monitoring (Gem) Centre Phase 3, Valerie Haugen

Monitoring Learning

This report provides findings and recommendations from the external mid-term evaluation of Phase 3 of the Global Education Monitoring (GEM Centre) - a long-term partnership between the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) and the Australian Government’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT). The goal of the GEM Centre is to improve learning, by ensuring that education policies, practices and investments are influenced by high-quality evidence. The aim of the mid-term evaluation was to enable reflection on the long-term partnership through the GEM Centre. The findings highlight the successes and achievements of the GEM Centre over the past decade, …


International Standard Setting Exercise, Australian Council For Educational Research (Acer) Nov 2022

International Standard Setting Exercise, Australian Council For Educational Research (Acer)

Monitoring Learning

The GEM Centre provides technical support to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Institute for Statistics (UIS), which has been mandated to monitor the progress of countries towards achieving the education goals of Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG 4). The International Standard Setting Exercise (ISSE) was undertaken to harmonise quantitative data across assessment programs, and to provide substantive information about children’s learning levels and progress benchmarked against international standards. The goal of the ISSE was to place thresholds on empirical reading and mathematics Learning Progression Scales for the Minimum Proficiency Level at the end of lower primary …


Minimum Proficiency Levels Unpacked, Australian Council For Educational Research (Acer) Oct 2022

Minimum Proficiency Levels Unpacked, Australian Council For Educational Research (Acer)

Monitoring Learning

This document draws together work from several initiatives to establish Minimum Proficiency Levels (MPLs) for reading and mathematics, for global use in pursuit of the Sustainable Development Goal in Education, SDG 4.1, with a specific focus on indicator 4.1.1. Three educational levels are referred to in this paper as ‘end of lower primary’, ‘end of primary’ and ‘end of lower secondary’. The MPLs are described and elaborated in four ways: nutshell statements; expanded statements; domains, constructs and descriptors; and sample items. A detailed account of the history and evolution of the Minimum Proficiency Levels is provided in Appendix A


Readiness, Response, And Recovery: The Impacts Of Covid-19 On Education Systems In Asia, Anna Dabrowski, Yung Nietschke, Syeda Kashfee Ahmed, Amy Berry, Maya Conway Sep 2022

Readiness, Response, And Recovery: The Impacts Of Covid-19 On Education Systems In Asia, Anna Dabrowski, Yung Nietschke, Syeda Kashfee Ahmed, Amy Berry, Maya Conway

Monitoring Learning

This review provides insights into COVID-19 responses in educational systems in Asia, and to understand which policies and practices were already in place to contribute to system readiness and resilience. Although the evidence base remains scarce, reflecting on the different system and school-level responses in Asia provides opportunity to identify gaps in current policies and research, and consider new ways in which countries in Asia can strengthen their educational systems into the future. It considers what makes an education system resilient, and the importance of school level practices. It uses an analytical framework to review readiness, response and recovery, and …


Gem Centre: Completion Report For Phase 2 Funding, 2017–2020, Australian Council For Educational Research Sep 2021

Gem Centre: Completion Report For Phase 2 Funding, 2017–2020, Australian Council For Educational Research

Monitoring Learning

In 2014, the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) and the Australian Government’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) established a partnership under the Global Education Monitoring Centre. Since then, there have been two funding periods: Phase 1 from 2014–2017 and Phase 2 from 2017–2020. Phase 3 will cover 2020–2023. This report documents the completion of Phase 2 funding and describes the shared priorities of DFAT and ACER through the GEM Centre, followed by the objectives and key outcomes of the work program during this period. The outcomes and lessons learned, together with findings from the GEM Centre mid-term …


Measurement Of Young Children's Learning For Program Evaluation, Jen Jackson, Syeda Kashfee Ahmed, Toby Carslake, Petra Lietz Sep 2019

Measurement Of Young Children's Learning For Program Evaluation, Jen Jackson, Syeda Kashfee Ahmed, Toby Carslake, Petra Lietz

Monitoring Learning

The global commitment to early learning has been expressed in the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals Agenda (SDG) (United Nations, 2016) and access to support for early learning is considered a human right for all children, whether provided by the family, community, or institutional programs (UNESCO, 2013). Inadequate cognitive stimulation has been identified as one of the key psychosocial risk factors associated with poor child development – a factor that is modifiable, with the right interventions (Walker et al., 2007). Thus, insights into how early learning supports may be delivered effectively in various contexts are essential. To explore the …


Improving Young Children's Learning In Economically Developing Countries: What Works, Why, And Where? Scoping Review, Jen Jackson, Syeda Kashfee Ahmed, Toby Carslake, Petra Lietz Aug 2019

Improving Young Children's Learning In Economically Developing Countries: What Works, Why, And Where? Scoping Review, Jen Jackson, Syeda Kashfee Ahmed, Toby Carslake, Petra Lietz

Monitoring Learning

This scoping review responds to the increasing interest in improving early childhood education and care (ECEC) in economically developing countries. It examines available research in relation to the question: What effective interventions have been implemented recently in economically developing countries to improve children’s learning in the years before school? As much of the research underpinning ECEC interventions has focused on economically developed countries, it is timely to review available research about the effectiveness of interventions in the economically developing world. The ECEC interventions were categorised as Income supplementation (n=8); Parent-focused interventions (n=37); Child-focused education and nurturing care (n=35); Integrated interventions …


Effective Child-Focused Education And Nurturing Care Interventions, Jen Jackson, Syeda Kashfee Ahmed, Toby Carslake, Petra Lietz Jan 2019

Effective Child-Focused Education And Nurturing Care Interventions, Jen Jackson, Syeda Kashfee Ahmed, Toby Carslake, Petra Lietz

Monitoring Learning

Child-focused education and nurturing care interventions provide learning support directly to the child. In line with the International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED Level 0), the support is typically provided by either centre- or home-based Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) services outside the child’s family and includes an educative and caring component with an active child development element. The 35 child-focused interventions in this review (of a total of 109 studies; see further details under background) occurred in 29 countries in five regions – the widest geographical spread of all intervention types under consideration. The most frequently represented countries …


Income Supplementation Interventions In Economically Developing Countries, Jen Jackson, Syeda Kashfee Ahmed, Toby Carslake, Petra Lietz Jan 2019

Income Supplementation Interventions In Economically Developing Countries, Jen Jackson, Syeda Kashfee Ahmed, Toby Carslake, Petra Lietz

Monitoring Learning

Income supplementation interventions provide cash transfers directly to the parents/families of young children, with the objective of improving learning and other outcomes. Interventions of this type directly address poverty as the origin of many of the challenges to children’s learning in economically developing contexts. Such programs seek to affect positively child wellbeing and readiness to learn as well as the home learning environments. These effects can be achieved by using the additional income, for example, to support centre-based childcare or school attendance, to buy more nutritious food or to enable parents to spend more time with their children. The eight …