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Assessing National Achievement Levels in EducationThis introductory book describes the
 main features of national and international assessments,
 both of which became extremely popular tools for determining
 the quality of education in the 1990s and 2000s. This
 increase in popularity reflects two important developments.
 First, it reflects increasing globalization and interest in
 global mandates, including Education for All (UNESCO 2000).
 Second, it represents an overall shift in emphasis in
 assessing the quality of education from a concern with
 inputs (such as student participation rates, physical
 facilities, curriculum materials, and teacher training) to a
 concern with outcomes. This emphasis on outcomes can, in
 turn, be considered an expression of concern with the
 development of human capital in the belief (a) that
 knowledge is replacing raw materials and labor as resources
 in economic development and (b) that the availability of
 human knowledge and skills is critical in determining a
 country's rate of economic development and its
 competitiveness in an international market. The purposes and
 main features of national assessments are described in
 chapter 2. The reasons for carrying out a national
 assessment are considered in chapter 3, and the main
 decisions that have to be made in the design and planning of
 an assessment are covered in chapter 4. Issues (as well as
 common errors) to be borne in mind in the design,
 implementation, analysis, reporting, and use of a national
 assessment are identified in chapter 5. In chapter 6,
 international assessments of student achievement, which
 share many procedural features with national assessments
 (such as sampling, administration, background data
 collected, and methods of analysis), are described.
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Improving Learning in Uganda, Volume II : Problematic Curriculum Areas and Teacher Effectiveness, Insights from National AssessmentsUganda is one of the few African countries with a functional national assessment system. Established in 2003, the National Assessment of Progress in Education (NAPE) Program is executed by the Uganda National Examination Board (UNEB). The program uses a learning outcomes measurement framework to annually measure achievement in literacy and numeracy proficiency on the basis of a cross-sectional, nationally representative sample of learners from the primary three (P3) and primary six (P6) grades. In 2008, the framework was extended to the senior two (S2) grade of lower secondary education for English, math, and biology. However, use of national assessment results to inform improvements in student learning remains weak. These data can nevertheless be used to search for solutions to the challenge of low-quality education in Uganda. The objective of this study is to generate a comprehensive, consolidated evidence base about student learning outcomes and teacher effectiveness in primary and secondary schools Uganda, grounded in existing, nationally owned NAPE assessment data. In specific terms, this analytical work attempts to establish the following: (a) the performance levels and patterns of students in P3, P6, and S2; (b) problematic curriculum areas in the respective grades; (c) teacher competency; and (d) predictors of student and teacher performance levels. The goal is not to reanalyze existing data, but rather, provide additional analysis that can help complement the very useful summary reports provided by NAPE for individual years. This analysis is also supported by findings from the qualitative end-of-cycle (EOC) curriculum examination reports generated by UNEB chief examiners.
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Great Teachers : How to Raise Student Learning in Latin America and the Caribbean--OverviewWhile the importance of good teaching
 may be intuitively obvious, only over the past decade has
 education research begun to quantify the high economic
 stakes around teacher quality. In a world where the goals of
 national education systems are being transformed, from a
 focus on the transmission of facts and memorization to a
 focus on student competencies for critical thinking, problem
 solving and lifelong learning the demands on teachers are
 more complex than ever. Governments across the world have
 put teacher quality and teacher performance under increasing
 scrutiny. The Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) region
 is no exception to these trends; indeed, in some key areas
 of teacher policy, the region is at the vanguard of global
 reform experience. The study aims to benchmark the current
 performance of LAC s teachers and identify key issues. It
 shares emerging evidence on important reforms of teacher
 policy being implemented in Lac countries. The study also
 analyzes the political room for maneuver for further reform
 in Lac. They focus on teachers in basic education
 (preschools, primary and secondary education) because the
 quantitative and qualitative challenges of producing
 effective teachers at these levels differ in key ways from
 university-level education, which has been addressed in
 other recent World Bank publications.