Learning assessment in pandemic: How do we diagnose learning losses to inform recovery efforts?

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This report is produced within the framework of the partnership "Recovering Schooling and Learning after the pandemic" between the World Bank and the Inter-American Dialogue, which aims to support the implementation of actions that promote higher levels of schooling and recovery of learning in the region.

The pandemic generated by Covid-19 has strongly impacted the educational systems of Latin America and the Caribbean, where the duration of school closures has been the longest in the world. The consequences have affected both the educational trajectories and learning opportunities of all students. Educational evaluation is a key and essential tool to begin a long process of measuring educational gaps and learning recovery after the crisis. This report aims to analyze the evaluation strategies implemented during this pandemic period, highlight good practices and offer recommendations to continue supporting diagnostic and recovery efforts in the future.

The report collects and analyzes information on learning evaluations at the primary and secondary levels of the common or regular education modality in the region's educational systems. The first section focuses on changes and projections for standardized assessments (national, regional, and international), and the second section analyzes and compares nine formative evaluation initiatives implemented during the pandemic. The report concludes with recommendations for developing and implementing effective and relevant assessment strategies in the current recovery period and the long term.

KEY RECOMMENDATIONS

1. The ministries of education must prioritize diagnostic evaluation so that, after two years of the pandemic, they have an accurate and up-to-date notion of student learning losses.
2. It is possible and necessary to optimize the information collected through national (and even regional) devices applied in the last two years to inform recovery actions, even if they do not have specific diagnostic purposes.
3. Formative diagnostic assessment strategies should empower teachers through direct involvement and relevant training to ensure the practical application and use of the information collected.
4. All assessment efforts in the recovery from the pandemic must contribute to developing a better system of long-term learning assessments.

The Education Program thanks to World Bank Group for their generous support in the making of this report. 

DOWNLOAD THE REPORT HERE: