How to Select an Instrument for Assessing Student Learning

Date
Dec 2014
The implementation of educational policies and practices is closely linked to the assessment of student learning, as it enables the monitoring of progress and achievements, the improvement of teaching in the classroom, the improvement of policies and the assessment of program effectiveness, among many other objectives. To ensure that assessment achieves its purposes, it is essential to make an appropriate choice of the learning assessment instruments to be used. In this context, teachers, policy implementers, researchers and staff of the ministries of education are frequently faced with the need to select tools for learning assessment, withou necessarily having an extensive knowledge of the subject. Therefore, this technical note is aimed at people working in the education sector who do not have training in the area of learning assessment, and its objective is to provide technical, practical and ethical guidance on the elements that must be taken into account when selecting or constructing a learning assessment instrument.