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Global education monitoring

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Sdg 4.1.1 Minimum Proficiency Levels. Definition And Blueprint For Assessment, Prue Anderson, Andrew Mannion, Ursula Schwantner, Maurice Walker, Colin Watson, Toby Simmer Jul 2026

Sdg 4.1.1 Minimum Proficiency Levels. Definition And Blueprint For Assessment, Prue Anderson, Andrew Mannion, Ursula Schwantner, Maurice Walker, Colin Watson, Toby Simmer

Global education monitoring

Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4 aims to ensure that, by 2030, “all girls and boys complete free, equitable and quality primary and secondary education leading to relevant and effective learning outcomes.” The primary indicator 4.1.1 concerns the proficiency of girls and boys in two learning areas (reading and mathematics) at three stages of education: at the end of lower primary, at the end of primary, and at the end of lower secondary. Large-scale learning assessments are essential tools to capture data on learning outcomes and to provide system-level evidence on education quality and equity. In the context of SDG 4, …

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Enhancing Assessment Of Early Childhood Learning And Development, Stephanie Templeton, Dan Cloney, Sandra Knowles, Ursula Schwantner Oct 2025

Enhancing Assessment Of Early Childhood Learning And Development, Stephanie Templeton, Dan Cloney, Sandra Knowles, Ursula Schwantner

Global education monitoring

This policy brief aims to assist governments and development partners in creating and enhancing assessments of early childhood learning and development to inform the creation of evidence-based policies and practices. It draws on the Global Education Monitoring (GEM) Centre's Monitoring learning in the early years: A review of early childhood assessments to support global monitoring.

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Pairwise Comparison Method Toolkit. A Toolkit For Countries To Measure Global Learning Outcomes., United Nations Educational, Scientific And Cultural Organization (Unesco), Australian Council For Educational Research (Acer) Jan 2025

Pairwise Comparison Method Toolkit. A Toolkit For Countries To Measure Global Learning Outcomes., United Nations Educational, Scientific And Cultural Organization (Unesco), Australian Council For Educational Research (Acer)

Global education monitoring

This toolkit has been co-authored by the Global Education Monitoring (GEM) Centre at the Australian Council for Education Research (ACER) and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Institute for Statistics (UIS). ACER provides technical support to the UIS, which has been mandated to monitor the progress of countries towards achieving Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG 4) in education to “ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and to promote lifelong learning opportunities for all” (United Nations, 2021). The GEM Centre sponsors and contributes to public goods and activities that facilitate education systems reporting against SDG 4 in a …

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Acer-Apceiu Global Citizenship Education Monitoring Toolkit: For Teachers, Schools, And System Leaders, Rachel Parker, Amy Berry, Payal Goundar, Karena Menzie-Ballantyne Nov 2024

Acer-Apceiu Global Citizenship Education Monitoring Toolkit: For Teachers, Schools, And System Leaders, Rachel Parker, Amy Berry, Payal Goundar, Karena Menzie-Ballantyne

Global education monitoring

At a time of escalating global unrest and insecurity, together with increasing global interdependence, interest in Global citizenship education (GCED) as a transformative pedagogy for peace, human rights, and sustainable development, has never been greater. Educators, school leaders and policy makers can play an important role in supporting young people to gain the knowledge and skills needed to engage with the global issues of our time, which are frequently described as volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous (Berinato, 2014). The APCEIU-ACER GCED Monitoring Toolkit was developed to assist education stakeholders to embed GCED within policy and practice in alignment with local, …

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Monitoring Learning In The Early Years. A Review Of Early Childhood Assessments To Support Global Monitoring, Dan Cloney, David Jeffries, Stephanie Templeton, Ursula Schwantner, Juliette F. Mendelovits, Amy Berry, Syeda Kashfee Ahmed, Nicola Andrews, Bethany Davies Jul 2024

Monitoring Learning In The Early Years. A Review Of Early Childhood Assessments To Support Global Monitoring, Dan Cloney, David Jeffries, Stephanie Templeton, Ursula Schwantner, Juliette F. Mendelovits, Amy Berry, Syeda Kashfee Ahmed, Nicola Andrews, Bethany Davies

Global education monitoring

Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG 4) aims to “ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all”. In relation to Early Childhood Education (ECE), SDG Target 4.2 aims to “ensure that all girls and boys have access to quality early childhood development, care and pre-primary education so that they are ready for primary education”. To operationalise this goal, the primary Indicator 4.2.1 sets out to measure the “proportion of children aged 24–59 months who are developmentally on track in health, learning and psychosocial well-being, by sex". The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) is the custodian of …

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Sustainable Development Goal 4.B In The Pacific – A Pilot Study For Monitoring Tertiary Education Scholarships For Development, Amanda Haddow, Daniel Edwards, Lorissa Hazelman Jul 2024

Sustainable Development Goal 4.B In The Pacific – A Pilot Study For Monitoring Tertiary Education Scholarships For Development, Amanda Haddow, Daniel Edwards, Lorissa Hazelman

Global education monitoring

United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4 aims to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all. SDG 4 includes 10 targets, of which Target 4.b aims to expand higher education scholarships for developing countries. Target 4.b leverages the benefits of international education to support countries in achieving SDG 4. For host and sending countries, the exchange of students across borders shares the societal benefits produced by tertiary education (knowledge, information, innovation) (Perna et al., 2014). The modality of scholarships broadens access to high-quality tertiary education in areas necessary for locally-led development and provides opportunities …

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Being And Becoming Global Citizens: Measuring Progress Toward Sdg 4.7. Monitoring Teacher And School Readiness To Enact Global Citizenship In The Asia-Pacific Region. Phase Ii Report, Lao Pdr, Rachel Parker, Payal Goundar, Karena Menzie-Ballantyne Jul 2024

Being And Becoming Global Citizens: Measuring Progress Toward Sdg 4.7. Monitoring Teacher And School Readiness To Enact Global Citizenship In The Asia-Pacific Region. Phase Ii Report, Lao Pdr, Rachel Parker, Payal Goundar, Karena Menzie-Ballantyne

Global education monitoring

This report presents the Phase II findings of a collaborative study by APCEIU and ACER which aims to expand efforts to monitor Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4.7 by addressing critical evidence gaps regarding country participation and educational settings. Phase I of this study included three countries in the Asia-Pacific region (Australia, Philippines and South Korea) and targeted primary school settings. Phase I answered research questions about the enabling conditions that support effective global citizenship education (GCED); how these conditions can inform instrument development to measure system, school, and teacher readiness to implement GCED; and recommendations for Phase II. Phase II …

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Gem Centre: Completion Report For Phase 3 Funding, 2020–2023, Australian Council For Educational Research Apr 2024

Gem Centre: Completion Report For Phase 3 Funding, 2020–2023, Australian Council For Educational Research

Global education monitoring

This report describes the focus and outcomes of the third triennium (2020–2023) of the Global Education Monitoring (GEM) Centre partnership between the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) and the Australian Government’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT). The GEM Centre was founded by ACER in 2013 as a strategic research initiative to provide models of good practice for monitoring United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4: education for all. Over the last decade, the GEM Centre has successfully leveraged ACER’s and DFAT’s foreign policy and development expertise to build strong, collaborative partnerships with key stakeholders working on the …

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What Is The Global Competitiveness Of Australia Awards? [Infographic], Debbie Wong, Yung Nietschke Dec 2023

What Is The Global Competitiveness Of Australia Awards? [Infographic], Debbie Wong, Yung Nietschke

Global education monitoring

This Infographic presents findings from a 2023 study that examined the underlying drivers that contributed to Australia Awards competitiveness and soft-power outcomes in the previous decade. Australia Awards is competitive as a development scholarship. It is valued for its unique characteristics: program quality, consistency in delivery, and meaningful support for disadvantaged students.

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Monitoring The Competitiveness Of The Australia Awards, Debbie Wong, Yung Nietschke Dec 2023

Monitoring The Competitiveness Of The Australia Awards, Debbie Wong, Yung Nietschke

Global education monitoring

The Australia Awards are prestigious international scholarships and short courses funded by the Australian Government to contribute to the achievement of development outcomes and the promotion of prosperity, resilience and stability in partner countries. The closure of Australia’s borders during COVID-19 caused a decline in international student numbers and prompted concerns about Australia’s competitiveness in the global scholarship market. This paper provides a framework and proposed methodology for systematic monitoring of Australia Awards competitiveness to provide DFAT’s Global Education and Scholarships section with data to inform ongoing policy and programming decisions. This paper uses theories of capital as a conceptual …

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Supporting Schools’ And Teachers’ Use Of Assessment To Inform Learning Of All Students, Ursula Schwantner, Soumaya Maghnouj Dec 2023

Supporting Schools’ And Teachers’ Use Of Assessment To Inform Learning Of All Students, Ursula Schwantner, Soumaya Maghnouj

Global education monitoring

Issue 5 of the series Using assessment data in education policy and practice: Examples from the Asia-Pacific documents 4 case studies of promising and effective policies or practices on how education systems can better support teachers and schools in effectively integrating assessment practices in the teaching and learning process, to identify and meaningfully address every learner’s needs. In particular, the case studies show how different tools, approaches and policies help promote and reinforce the use of assessment to support more learner-centred and differentiated approaches to teaching and learning. 1. Using the Progressive Achievement approach to develop data-informed schools by Marc …

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Policy Brief: Investigating School-Based Programs That Support Student Mental Health And Psychosocial Wellbeing In Low- And Middle-Income Countries, Syeda Kashfee Ahmed, Anna Dabrowski, Katherine Dix Nov 2023

Policy Brief: Investigating School-Based Programs That Support Student Mental Health And Psychosocial Wellbeing In Low- And Middle-Income Countries, Syeda Kashfee Ahmed, Anna Dabrowski, Katherine Dix

Global education monitoring

School closures and disruptions to mental health services linked to the COVID-19 pandemic have significantly impacted the lives of children, young people and their families. Now, more than ever, schools are expected to provide emotional and psychosocial support and stability to students, educators and other school staff. Education systems are therefore investing more resources into school-based mental health programs to ensure they can provide the required level of support, in addition to acknowledging the need for social-emotional skill development. The ever-growing number of school-based mental health and wellbeing programs make it challenging to identify programs that are effective. It is …

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School-Based Interventions That Support Mental Health And Psychosocial Wellbeing In Low- And Middle-Income Countries, Syeda Kashfee Ahmed, Anna Dabrowski, Katherine Dix, Toby Carslake Sep 2023

School-Based Interventions That Support Mental Health And Psychosocial Wellbeing In Low- And Middle-Income Countries, Syeda Kashfee Ahmed, Anna Dabrowski, Katherine Dix, Toby Carslake

Global education monitoring

It is encouraging to see a focus on student mental health increasingly reflected in international education policies. However, the growing number of school-based mental health and wellbeing programs makes it challenging to identify quality interventions that effectively support student mental health, and even harder to identify evidence-based programs that link mental health support to learning. There is also a lack of comprehensive evidence on the effectiveness of mental health and wellbeing interventions in relation to student academic outcomes, particularly in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC). In response to renewed interest in understanding how the education sector can provide effective mental …

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Explaining Students’ Attitudes Towards A Sustainable Future: Evidence From Sea-Plm 2019 Data, Syeda Kashfee Ahmed, Petra Lietz Sep 2023

Explaining Students’ Attitudes Towards A Sustainable Future: Evidence From Sea-Plm 2019 Data, Syeda Kashfee Ahmed, Petra Lietz

Global education monitoring

This report, published by the Global Education Monitoring (GEM) Centre, discusses how students’ attitudes towards global issues are now crucial more than ever to build a sustainable world for future generations. The first section describes why students’ attitudes towards school and learning are important and how they are linked to the Educational Prosperity Framework (Willms & Tramonte, 2015). The second section highlights the literature about the key factors which can influence students’ attitudes towards school and learning and how they are related to students’ attitudes towards sustainable development. The third section discusses the methods used for analysing the relationships between …

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Summary Report. Being And Becoming Global Citizens: Measuring Progress Toward Sdg 4.7. Phase I: Monitoring Teacher And School Readiness To Enact Global Citizenship In The Asia-Pacific Region, Rachel Parker, Jennie Chainey, Payal Goundar, Sarah Richardson, Anna Dabrowski, Amy Berry, Claire Scoular Sep 2023

Summary Report. Being And Becoming Global Citizens: Measuring Progress Toward Sdg 4.7. Phase I: Monitoring Teacher And School Readiness To Enact Global Citizenship In The Asia-Pacific Region, Rachel Parker, Jennie Chainey, Payal Goundar, Sarah Richardson, Anna Dabrowski, Amy Berry, Claire Scoular

Global education monitoring

The relationship between global citizenship and education quality was established almost a decade ago, when it was described as a target under United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4.7 – to ‘ensure all learners acquire knowledge and skills needed to promote sustainable development.’ Despite efforts to define and frame global citizenship education (GCED), systems continue to grapple with understanding, enacting, and measuring it in ways that reflect changing local and global conditions for students, teachers and schools. This study responds to an identified need for tools and resources for systems to enact, monitor and evaluate GCED, particularly in primary school …

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Policy Brief: Monitoring And Evaluating Global Citizenship Education In The Asia-Pacific Region, Payal Goundar, Rachel Parker Sep 2023

Policy Brief: Monitoring And Evaluating Global Citizenship Education In The Asia-Pacific Region, Payal Goundar, Rachel Parker

Global education monitoring

Global citizenship education is now an important element of curricula, policy, and practice in many diverse nations around the world. Almost a decade ago, education for global citizenship was described as a target under United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 4.7 – to ‘ensure all learners acquire knowledge and skills needed to promote sustainable development.’ Despite efforts to define and frame global citizenship education (GCED), systems continue to grapple with understanding, enacting, and assessing GCED in ways that reflect changing local and global conditions for students, teachers, and schools. This new study responds to the need for tools and resources to …

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Being And Becoming Global Citizens: Measuring Progress Toward Sdg 4.7. Phase I: Monitoring Teacher And School Readiness To Enact Global Citizenship In The Asia-Pacific Region, Rachel Parker, Jennie Chainey, Payal Goundar, Sarah Richardson, Anna Dabrowski, Amy Berry, Claire Scoular Jul 2023

Being And Becoming Global Citizens: Measuring Progress Toward Sdg 4.7. Phase I: Monitoring Teacher And School Readiness To Enact Global Citizenship In The Asia-Pacific Region, Rachel Parker, Jennie Chainey, Payal Goundar, Sarah Richardson, Anna Dabrowski, Amy Berry, Claire Scoular

Global education monitoring

Substantive work has been undertaken to define and frame global citizenship education (GCED). Global citizenship and related terms are included in the curricula and policy statements of many diverse nations around the world (Parker & Fraillon, 2016; APCEIU, 2020b), however, the education sector often struggles to enact and monitor GCED in ways that reflect the changing conditions of students and schools. This study responds to an identified need for enhanced tools and resources for schools and systems to monitor and evaluate GCED, in accordance with United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4.7. This need is particularly pressing in the …

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Policy Brief: Teacher Professional Development For Students With Disability In The Asia-Pacific, Syeda Kashfee Ahmed, Anannya Chakraborty May 2023

Policy Brief: Teacher Professional Development For Students With Disability In The Asia-Pacific, Syeda Kashfee Ahmed, Anannya Chakraborty

Global education monitoring

Around the world, policymakers and development organisations are increasingly supporting the education of students with disability, particularly in the bid to achieve United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 4 – to ensure ‘inclusive and equitable quality education for all’. Yet globally, more than half of students with disability drop out of secondary school due to the lack of support in classrooms (UNESCAP, 2019). In the Asia-Pacific region, resource shortages and high student drop-out rates significantly impact the shift to inclusive education. Additionally, educational segregation of students with disability is widely accepted in low- and middle-income countries in the region, despite international …

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Equity And Equality In Learning In Asia-Pacific: What Do Results From Large-Scale Assessments Tell Us? Gender In Focus Policy Brief, Syeda Kashfee Ahmed, Anna Dabrowski, Jacqueline Cheng, Victoria Klimova, Isabella Mccallum Jan 2023

Equity And Equality In Learning In Asia-Pacific: What Do Results From Large-Scale Assessments Tell Us? Gender In Focus Policy Brief, Syeda Kashfee Ahmed, Anna Dabrowski, Jacqueline Cheng, Victoria Klimova, Isabella Mccallum

Global education monitoring

This policy brief investigates gender disparities in learning outcomes and the factors contributing to these disparities as identified in large-scale assessment data in Southeast Asia. It additionally provides a set of recommendations aimed at enhancing equitable student learning outcomes while advocating for comprehensive support of gender-based interventions within educational quality initiatives, spanning both systemic and school-level support. The findings presented in this brief are drawn from large-scale assessment (LSA) datasets and secondary analysis of these sources. For more detailed information regarding the large-scale assessments in Southeast Asia, please refer to the appendix section.

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Pairwise Comparison Method: Concept Note, Australian Council For Educational Research Nov 2022

Pairwise Comparison Method: Concept Note, Australian Council For Educational Research

Global education monitoring

The paper sets out several approaches, both statistical and non-statistical, by which jurisdictions may choose to link their assessments to the global standards for reporting. One of these, the Pairwise Comparison Method (PCM), was first set out in Lazendic (2019). This concept note provides further details on the PCM and the work that has taken place since 2019 to enable the approach to be operationalised. The PCM relies on the Learning Progression Scales (LPSs) for reading and mathematics, developed by the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER). A full description of the development of the scales is provided in the …

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Learning Recovery And Addressing The Learning Crisis In The Asia Pacific: Policy Brief, Pina Tarricone, Kemran Mestan, Ian Teo, Yung Nietschke Jan 2022

Learning Recovery And Addressing The Learning Crisis In The Asia Pacific: Policy Brief, Pina Tarricone, Kemran Mestan, Ian Teo, Yung Nietschke

Global education monitoring

The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted education for approximately 1.2 billion students across the Asia-Pacific, and forced the closure of many schools, precipitating a transition towards remote learning, albeit with uneven access and quality (UNESCO, 2021; Global Education Evidence Advisory Panel, 2022), and threatening to deepen the ‘learning crisis’ that already existed, particularly for the most vulnerable learners. As education systems in the Asia-Pacific seek to recover the learning loss due to the pandemic and address the broader learning crisis, it is incumbent on governments to identify appropriate recovery strategies in the short term. Also, governments need to support education system …

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Gem Centre: Pathways To Impact, Australian Council For Educational Research Jan 2021

Gem Centre: Pathways To Impact, Australian Council For Educational Research

Global education monitoring

The Global Education Monitoring (GEM) Centre is a long-term, strategic partnership between the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) and the Australian Government’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT). While supporting education monitoring initiatives around the world, the GEM Centre has a strategic focus on improving learning in the Indo-Pacific region and provides technical support to enable monitoring of progress towards United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4 by 2030.

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The Role Of Big Data In Education Quality Monitoring: Implications At The Global, Regional And National Levels, Ursula Schwantner, Amit Kaushik, Ross Turner, Charlotte Waters, Ray J. Adams Jan 2018

The Role Of Big Data In Education Quality Monitoring: Implications At The Global, Regional And National Levels, Ursula Schwantner, Amit Kaushik, Ross Turner, Charlotte Waters, Ray J. Adams

Global education monitoring

The paper discusses the role of big data in monitoring education quality and implications at the global, regional and national levels in the light of international efforts to monitor progress in achieving UN Sustainable Development Goal in Education (SDG 4). Data on learning outcomes are central in establishing and monitoring education quality. The proportion of children achieving at least a minimum proficiency in reading and mathematics is a primary indicator of SDG 4. For this indicator to be meaningful across contexts, a shared understanding must be reached on its constituents and the data used to report progress. While large-scale assessments …

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System-Wide Analysis Of Assessment Practices (Swaap): Concept Note, Australian Council For Educational Research Oct 2017

System-Wide Analysis Of Assessment Practices (Swaap): Concept Note, Australian Council For Educational Research

Global education monitoring

This note is concerned with the development of a process to analyse how assessment practices are integrated into education systems in order for assessment outcomes to be useful for evidence based decision making throughout the system. It examines the quality of learning assessment and the extent to which it is embedded into an education system and acts as an effective contributor to the improvement of learning outcomes. The process is referred to as the System-Wide Analysis of Assessment Practices (SWAAP). The primary objective of SWAAP is to support education systems to develop national assessment strategies that generate meaningful data and …

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