Using the Holistic Assessment for Learning for formative assessment with Syrian teachers

• In Event: Assessing holistic learning outcomes throughout the educational life cycle: Lessons from crisis-affected communities in Syria

Proposal

The Holistic Assessment for Learning (HAL) is a tool for providing formative learning assessments for teachers on students' literacy, numeracy, and socio-emotional skills in the earlier grades. The tool is based on the Syrian curriculum for grades 2 and 3 and was designed specifically for use inside Syria. Between late 2018 and early 2019, the Save the Children used HAL to assess the learning skills of more than 1,500 Syrian children in grades two and three. Results from this initial assessment have been used to refine and strengthen the tool and adapt it for use by classroom teachers. The objective of the HAL is to provide teachers with a rigorous formative assessment tool that they can use to monitor the progress of children in their early-grade classrooms and improve the relevance of instruction to address the literacy, numeracy, and social and emotional learning gaps that they identify.

With continued funding from ECW through the MYRP, to ensure education response is strengthened with the ability to assess learning outcomes, we refined and contextualized HAL in non-formal programming in northeast and northwest Syria, piloting for the first time outside of formal schools in 2023. The pilot aimed to meet the needs of teachers to provide tailored support to children’s learning in formal schools and non-formal education settings in the Syrian humanitarian context.

Rolling out HAL in formal and non-formal education environments will facilitate quality instruction at the pupil level of learning in grades 2 and 3. Piloting the HAL in the NFE setting provides the opportunity to expand the use of the HAL to provide teachers in assessing learners and to support children in accelerated education programs, catch-up classes, or remedial education to children at equivalent grade 2 and 3 levels.

The presentation goes through the key outcomes and findings from piloting HAL in nonformal learning environments in Syria, based on the 2023 pilot test results and feasibility feedback from grade 2 and 3 teachers in northeast and northwest Syria and the further refinement of the teacher toolkit. Lessons from the adaptation process as well as the data itself support future expansion of holistic formative assessments in insecure environments, including curriculum and linguistic considerations and adaption for use outside of Syria.

Author

• Abeer Attari, Save The Children International