Next generation assessment conference
I was pleased to be invited to attend the HMC/ASCL/St Pauls School/The Edge Foundation/EDSK/rethinking assessment conference on the future of assessment which took place at the Drapers Hall in London on Tuesday 17th January. This conference was organised to share views on what was currently wrong with assessment and how we should improve the situation. As you might imagine a range of options were proposed but it was striking that the IB featured heavily as the model for the direction of travel – holistic assessment using a variety of methods to assess not just knowledge but also skills, values and attitudes. If this sounds familiar it is because it has already been pitched by the OECD in their 2030 compass for education and of course features in different ways in all of the IB programmes.
The conference was attended by a number of IB schools and it was a pleasure to meet colleagues face-to-face for the first time since COVID began. IB was very much involved as my colleagues Anton Beguin, Chief Education Officer, and Dominique Turner, Senior Manager Assessment Development and Operations (MYP) presented to a breakout on the future of assessment and the MYP eAssessments. It is very clear that the IB eAssessments are very much ahead of other digital assessments used in schools and are very forward thinking using the rich variety of tools available in the digital world and are not simply digitised pencil and paper examinations. If you are interested in the different questions styles and tools available to create items please have a look at: http://idprm.ibo.org/presentation.html#/English. If you would like to see the twitter feed please go to: https://twitter.com/hashtag/NextGenerationAssessment?src=hashtag_click
To link to this I am chairing a webinar on the MYP hosted by Education Today at 1:00 on Thursday 27th January. Details are at https://www.education-today.co.uk/moving-towards-eassessment-with-the-myp/
Presenters from two IBSCA schools will be alongside me, Robert Harrison from ACS International Schools and Simon Pullen from the Royal Harbour Academy. So this is very much an IBSCA led event! Please join if you want to find out more about the MYP.
Peter Fidczuk
Universities Officer, IBSCA