Above and Beyond: Transitions in Upper Secondary Education

Key Takeaways: Meeting of the Informal Working Group on Assessment and Certification in Upper Secondary Education

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© OECD 2023

Above & Beyond

The Transitions in Upper Secondary Education project develops analysis on how upper secondary education can be designed to meet diverse learner needs and promote equitable outcomes by developing comparative analysis on pathways and assessment and certification.

Introduction

Assessment and Certification in Upper Secondary Education

The Role of Digital Technologies in Upper Secondary Examinations.

In June 2023, the Above and Beyond: Transitions in Upper Secondary Education project invited countries to join the Informal Working Group on Assessment and Certification in Upper Secondary Education. One of the main functions of the Informal Working Group is to guide the development of two upcoming OECD working papers:

On 5 October 2023, members of the Informal Working Group on Assessment Certification from across the world came to together to provide guidance and insights for the development of the OECD's working papers. This document provides a short overview of the key takeaways from the meeting of the Informal Working Group in Paris.

Agenda

09:00

Opening remarks

Hannah Kitchen, Above and Beyond Project Manager, OECD

09:10

Innovating assessment in upper secondary education

Andreas Schleicher, Director for Education and Skills, OECD

10:00

11:20

Panel discussion: Assessing the breadth of learner knowledge and skills that matter for the future

Moderator: Paulo Santiago, Head of Policy Advice and Implementation Division, OECD

Angie Calleberg, Ministry of Education and Child Care, British Columbia (Canada)

Terry Fenn and Megan Miller, Ministry of Education, New Zealand

Andrew Creamer, Scottish Government, Scotland

Dr. Christina Wikstrom, Umea University, Sweden

Dr. Lena Gray, External expert, United Kingdom

Workshops: The practical challenges of assessment reform

Innovating written examinations with Dr. Christina Wikstrom and Shivi Chandra (OECD)

Personalised assessments with Dr. Lena Gray and Rebecca Frankum

Agenda

13:30

Stakeholder perspectives:

Moderator: Paulo Santiago, OECD

Thomas Vikberg, Ministry of Education and Culture, Finland

Moira Leydon, Association of Secondary Teachers of Ireland

Isabel Sobrino Mate, Ceemet, European Tech and Industry Employers

Kendra-Jean Nwamadi, OECD Youthwise

14:30

Digital assessments and examination station points

British Columbia (Canada): Literacy and numeracy provincial assessments

New Zealand: NCEA online assessments

Norway: Digital examinations for upper secondary

Finland: Finnish matriculation examination

OECD: PISA and PILA

17:00

17:50

Panel discussion with countries about their digital assessment and examinations

Update on OECD work

Key takeaways

There are strong pressures to evolve high stakes assessments and certifications

In most countries, there is significant appetite to include a wider range of skills, including those that young people have and which matter for their future, in high stakesassessments.

While social and emotional skills are commonly prominent in national curricula, as soonasthereiscompetitionbetweenthecurriculumandassessment,assessment prevails.

This makes including transversal skills in high stakes assessment in some form critical.

Yet, assessing transversal skills in reliable and valid ways is highlychallenging in a high stakescontext.Currently,approachesfocusonexperientialmeasures.

Digital technologies provide potential to innovate user experiences and skills assessment,yetthehighstakesofcertificationsnecessitatescaution.

Countries’ are keen to explore the potential of digital technologies and tend to focus on innovations for improving existing processes (e.g. marking, storage) rather than introducing entirely new assessment formats (eg gamification, simulations, creative questiontypes).

There are social and psychometric reasons why stakeholders prefer to keep digital assessmentformatsasclosetoexistinganaloguetasksaspossible.

Uppersecondaryassessmentsandcertificationscannotandshouldnotrevert tobusinessasnormalpost-COVID

Since the COVID pandemic, many countries have noted greater anxiety and higher levels of absenteeism which undermine young people’s full engagement in upper secondaryeducation.

In a number of contexts, these issues were already present pre-COVID, with the pandemicaccentuatingexistingtrends.

Manysystemsheldtheviewthathighstakesassessments mustnotreverttohowitwas before COVID, and rather adapt to learners’ changing educational needs, expectationsandthechangingworldoftomorrow.

Actively and purposefully questioning the dichotomy between vocational and generaleducation

Many stakeholders noted that the traditional division between “academic” and “vocational”skillsisnotalwaysrelevantandcanevenhinderaholisticviewofskills development:

Allindividuals,eveninhistorically“theoreticalfields”likemedicineneedpracticalskills, whicharetechnicalandrelational.

Highstakesassessmentshavearoleinassessingabroaderrangeofskillsandsignaling theirvalueandroleineducationsystems,alongothersubject-specificskills.

The language that we use around skills is important. Terms like “softskills” can create the impression that these are somehow lesser skills, as opposed to skills that are i d b “h d” d h i ll d di

Above and Beyond: Transitions in Upper Secondary Education project at the OECD

The Transitions in Upper Secondary Education project develops analysis on how upper secondary education can be designed to meet diverse learner needs and promote equitable outcomes by developing comparative analysis on pathways and assessment and certification. Countries can engage with the project through a range of flexible options that contribute to the project’s evidence base and mobilise its knowledge to support national policy making and reforms, including by requesting peer learning discussions, comparative research focused on national policy questions and tailored policy advice.

Supporting upper secondary transitions through analysis on:

Assessment and Certification

Promoting learning that matters and providing effective passports for the future by analysing how to:

Assess a wide range of knowledge and skills in reliable and valid ways

Recognise breadth of student achievement

Pathways

Supporting smooth transitions into, through and out of upper secondary education by understanding the role of, and how to promote:

Foundational skills and knowledge

Depth of knowledge and skills and specific competencies

Emerging sense of future ambitions

Rationale for comparative work

The confluence of the rapidly changing world of work, the growth of digital technologies, the major shock of COVID-19 and the demand to recognise a more transversal set of skills in education systems is leading to a re-evaluation of upper secondary certification and qualifications.

The degree and pace of change in our societies seems, and certainly feels unprecedented

Upper secondary education – as the final level of formal schooling – has a central role in helping equip young people with the competencies, behaviours and attitudes to take full advantage of, and be responsive to, the opportunities and challenges of our rapidly changing world.

Subject- and occupational-specific skills and broader, transversal skills are key to young people’s smooth transitions after school

To access and thrive in work, training and post-secondary education, subject- and occupation-specific skills are critical for young people

Most OECD countries have now integrated a range of social and emotional skills, twenty-first century competencies, transversal skills and other cross-cutting skills in their upper secondary curricula.

What gets tested, gets taught

Experience has repeatedly shown that what goes into qualifications

Tackling the tricky question of how to assess a broader range of skills

Transversal skills are also difficult to assess fairly in a way that is free from individual and cultural biases.

most jurisdictions that include a broader range of skills in their upper secondary curricula tend to do so through an experiential approach by requiring that students engage in activities through which they are likely to develop and demonstrate a broader mix of skills

Digital technologies might have the potential to push forward the frontiers of high stakes certification

Use of and interest in digital examinations and assessments continues to increase, reflecting accelerated adoption of technology during COVID-19.

However, the high stakes attached with upper secondary certification and examinations make it essential that innovations are carefully considered and managed without jeopardising their credibility and fairness.

Upcoming Working Papers

The OECD Above and Beyond: Transitions in Upper Secondary Education project’s comparative work on upper secondary certification will advance understanding of how systems can draw on a range of assessment approaches and harness the potential of technology to provide certification that reflects the breadth of individuals’achievementsandsupportstheirpathwaysintowork

Workingpaperonassessmentandcertificationinuppersecondaryeducation

The working paper will provide an overview of the range of different assessment approaches for the purposes of upper secondary certification across OECD countries The paper also aims to directly question common assumptions in assessment practice, such as external examinations being more reliable and teacher-basedassessmentbeingmorevalid.

By exploring the benefits and risks of different types of assessments and identifying if certain types of assessments are better suited for assessing certain skills or being used in certain contexts, the paper will work towards developing a framework to guide countries in their selection of assessments when developing, reforming and reviewing their certification at the end of upper secondary education.

Keyquestionsguidingtheworkingpaper’sdevelopment:

What are the different ways to provide upper secondary certification and what aretheimplicationsforstudents,teachersandeducationsystems?

What are the approaches for the design of assessment that contributes to upper secondarycertification?

What are the advantages and challenges associated with different types of

Working paper on the role of digital technologies in upper secondary examinations

The working paper on high-stakes digital examinations aims to provide insights into the many types of digital examination possible for upper secondary certification and the ways in which countries leverage their opportunities and address their challengesthroughstrategiesactionableviapolicymaking.

First, the paper will establish a commonbaseforinternationallycomparative analysis through an exploration of the components of digital examination systems.

Second, it will present possibilities by conducting an inventory of trends in digitalexaminationsystemsacrosscountries,includingwhattheyareusedfor, their most common features, and their relationship to analogue upper secondaryexaminations.

Third, it will discuss strategies and cases of how different systems work to maximise the potential and minimise the possible challenges of digital examinations.

Finally, it will project immediate future considerations in digital examinations, based on trends across OECD countries, pilots and initial feedback, and emergingresearchdirectionsandexpertise.

Featured digital platforms and examinations

British Columbia (Canada): Grade 10 Numeracy and Grade 12 Literacy Provincial Assessments

Angie Calleberg (Executive Director, Student Learning Branch, Learning and Education Programs Division, Ministry of Education and Child Care, British Columbia, Canada) provided an overview of the BC provincial assessments. The Grade 10 Numeracy Assessment is a provincial assessment which assesses student proficiency in numeracy, and the Grade 10 and 12 Literacy Assessment in literacy.

The Grade 10 Numeracy Assessment was introduced in 2018. The Grade 10 Literacy Assessment followed in 2019 and the Grade 12 Literacy Assessment was introduced in 2021. All three are requirements to certify completion of upper secondary education (“British Columbia Certificate of Graduation”) for all students, the Numeracy Assessment written for the first time in Grade 10 and the Literacy Assessment in Grade 12 (alongside the Grade 10 Literacy Assessment written for the first time in Grade 10, which was presented on 5 October). Further information is available in the Overview of Speakers and Digital Assessment.

Sue Chalmers, Chief Advisor Assessment, Assessment Division, New Zealand Qualifications Authority, New Zealand provided an overview of NCEA online assessments and provided a demonstration of a Media Studies exam. Since 2015, thousands of students have taken the opportunity to do some of their NCEA exams online. The shift to digital external assessment responds to the fact New Zealand schools are increasingly using digitally enabled teaching and learning, and so NCEA assessments need to reflect this.

New Zealand, National Certification of Educational Achievement (NCEA) Online Assessment

NCEA external assessments are typically undertaken at the end of the school year and there are external assessments available for most subjects from which students can get credits towards NCEA. Currently, most test-based subjects are available digitally as direct substitutes of paper-based exams. Schools opt-in to offering digital exams and are being supported to offer more digital exams.

Norway, Grade 11 English Assessment

Kevin Steinman, Senior Adviser in the Department for curriculum of Upper Secondary in Norway provided an overview about secondary exams in Norway, particularly focusing on English and how these are being digitalized following the new renewed curriculum. The presentation used the Norwegian Grade 11 English examination as example.

The exam is platform-independent, had the duration of five hours, and is graded externally by teachers via a digitized process. The new model provides multiple advantages such as increased reliability, increased validity, and allows to develop Norway’s understanding of digital assessments. Participants had the opportunity to experiment with the exam on the laptops provided, while being able to put questions and offer feedback to Kevin.

Thomas Vikberg (Senior Specialist in Ministry of Education and Culture in Finland) presented the Finnish digital matriculation examination, showing three different subject examinations from previous years run on an offline setup administrated by Thomas and using the actual devices provided to students in Finland. Participants had the opportunity to individually explore the exams on the computer while providing feedback and asking questions Thomas.

Finland, Matriculation Examination

The matriculation examination consists of all subjects taken in a student’s upper secondary curriculum (a minimum of five tests) and has been entirely digital in Finland since 2019. The digital examination environment is administered via Abitti, an open-source and modifiable system which runs on an offline operating system and local exam server set up by examination administrators.

OECD: Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) and Platform for Innovative Learning and Assessment (PILA)

Mario Piacentini (OECD) and Emma Linsenmayer (OECD) presented the PISA 2022 Creative Thinking assessment, the PISA 2025 Learning in the Digital World assessment and the Platform for Innovative Learning and Assessment (PILA) project’s open-source tool.

The PISA 2022 Creative Thinking assessment asks students to demonstrate their ability to generate

diverse and creative ideas and evaluate and improve on ideas. In the PISA 2025 Learning in the Digital World assessment, students will be asked to self-regulate as they problem solve and build knowledge using digital tools.

The PILA project provides an opensource tool created in tandem with international experts to assess twentyfirst century skills, for classroom-based formative assessment and research. PILA acts as an innovation lab in which new technology-enhanced items, scoring approaches and reporting methods can be easily developed, integrated and tested.

Definitions and terms

Upper secondary education

Upper secondary education refers to ISCED 3, in the International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED) According to the ISCED classification, some of the defining features of this level are the increasing range of options and differentiation in content students can engage with, and the preparation it provides for entering either work or tertiary education.

Certification and qualifications

While the terms ‘certification’ and ‘qualification’ are often used interchangeably, a subtle distinction exists. Certification evidences – or certifies – what a learner has achieved, while qualifications may indicate whether a learner is adequately prepared – or qualified – for a particular job, course, or role.

Pathways

Pathways are the trajectories that learners take as they transition through education. At upper secondary level, learners typically participate in different programmes of study: they may select different specialisations and they may choose different subject combinations

National examinations

National, or central, examinations are standardised tests with formal consequence on students’ progression through school or certification. National examinations typically result in a student’s upper secondary certification although they are frequently not the only component.

For more information visit https://www oecd org/education/aboveandbeyond/ Contact hannah.kitchen@oecd.org

@OECD Education and Skills

@OECDEduSkills

@OECD Education and Skills