Using a National Test to Report Against Global Standards: A Case Study from Ghana

• In Event: A Data-Driven Approach to Foundational Learning and Peacebuilding

Proposal

The first presentation provides a government perspective on the importance of high-quality, comparable learning data to inform decision making at all levels of the system.
Over the last two years, ACER UK has been working with the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NaCCA) to improve the National Standardized Test (NST) in Ghana. This is a national assessment in reading and mathematics of all learners in public schools in grades 4 and 6. The primary purpose for this assessment is to understand learner performance against the curriculum, but the Government of Ghana also wanted to make it eligible for use in Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4.1.1 reporting on the proportion of learning meeting minimum proficiency levels. To achieve this, ACER UK and NaCCA have worked to align the assessment with the UNESCO Institute of Statistics (UIS) eligibility criteria for global reporting and developed a portfolio of evidence. This evidence will be submitted to UIS for them to trial the vetting procedure that will be used to accept national assessments for reporting. The NST 2024 is set to be one of the first national assessments to be used for global reporting and will provide a blueprint for how this can be achieved elsewhere.
The first part of the presentation will focus on the lessons learnt through the delivery of NST 2024 and the future plans to apply those lessons to ensure sustainability. This will include the work done to improve areas such as item writing, process documentation and psychometric analysis capacity in Ghana.
The second part of the presentation will also share details of how the assessment outcomes have been used in Ghana to manage the school system and improve learning outcomes. This will include how results have been used at a regional and national level to understand performance and identify learning needs, both for teachers and learners, and the interventions that have been put in place as a result. The presentation will also demonstrate how the national data has been used to inform decision making and improve policy in Ghana and ensure a more peaceful and equitable society.

Author

• Colin Watson, ACER International UK