IEA General Assembly Amiens 912 October 2006 PASEC Presentation

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IEA General AssemblyAmiens 9-12 October 2006
PASEC Presentation
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Outline

• CONFEMEN PASEC
• Activities and outcomes
• Methodology
• Scientific Results Policy Issues
• Recent works future developments
• Challenges

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CONFEMEN

• The CONFEMEN ( Conférence des Ministres de
  lEducation ayant le français en partage) is the
  oldest organisation of the Francophonie (1960)
• A political organisation gathering 41 member
  states
• Network of Education Ministries and National
  Correspondents
• A Permanent Technical Secretariat based in Dakar

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History of PASEC

• Programme dAnalyse des Systèmes Educatifs de la
  CONFEMEN
• Created in 1991 after Jomtien Conference on
  Education for All
• Regional Student Assessment Program
• before 1995 data collection analyses
  performed by european and canadian research
  centres
• since 1995 data collection and analyses
  performed by national teams supported by the
  CONFEMEN staff in Dakar

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Objectives of the program

• Identify models of cost-effective schools and
  schooling
• Capacity building in the participating countries
• Disseminate results, methods and tools for
  assessment/evaluation
• Reinforce the role of CONFEMEN as permanent
  observatory

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PASEC management

• Student assessments are undertaken under the
  responsibility of
• National teams (6 persons) ? test
  questionnaires adaptation, field operations, part
  of the analysis and dissemination of the results
• CONFEMEN staff based in Dakar ? overall technical
  supervision, capacity building, analysis report
  writing
• The Minister of Education the CONFEMEN
  Secretary General ? administrative financial
  supervision
• Scientific Committee ? program orientations
  validation of the studies

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Participating countries bodies

• 17 participating countries Nearly all
  Francophone Africa, Madagascar, Mauritius
• ? Countries having the lowest human development
  index
• ? Low primary enrolment achievement rates
• Countries to participate Burundi, Democratic
  Republic of Congo, Rwanda ?Post conflict
  countries
• Guinée Bissau, Laos ? not French speaking
  countries
• Financial partners Ministry of Foreign Affairs
  Ministry of Education (France), Organisation
  Internationale de la Francophonie, World Bank,
  Ministries of Education of the participating
  countries

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Activities 1/2

• National Reports Assessment (17), pupils follow
  up (3)
• Cross national reports Papers Synthesis of
  results, Repetition (2005), Contract teachers
• Research notes sampling, IRT, multilevel
  analyses, non response imputation,
  cost-effectiveness
• Test development (grade 1 to 6) French,
  English, Arab, Malagasy
• Capacity building 10 Annual training workshops,
  onsite missions (over 100), Training of national
  teams in Dakar, Technical notes and
  methodological guideline (2000), Training of
  interns

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Activities 2/2

• Punctual technical support to countries
• Participation in international meetings
  publications UNESCO, ADEA,
• Promotion of secondary analyses performed by
  research centres

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Methodology (1/3)

• Tests administered to 2nd and 5th graders in
  French and mathematics ( national languages)
• One test at the beginning and another at the end
  of the year ? value added models
• Questionnaires addressed to pupils, teachers and
  school directors
• Between 110 180 schools sampled
• One class by level (2 or 5) chosen 15-20 pupils
  sampled within each classs

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Analytical framework
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Methodology (3/3)

• Objective isolate pupil, teacher and school
  effects on the pupils achievement and relate it
  to the costs
• ? Not originally designed for international
  comparison
• ? No pupils proficiency scale
• Curricula based test (1995, update 2000, update
  planned 2007)
• Sampling design to address the effect of
  particular type of schooling (multigrade, )

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Factors for explaining source of variety
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Policy issues raised by the studies

• Low level of achievement
• Low efficiency of education systems
• Links between initial teacher training students
  outcomes unclear or weak
• Grade repetition ineffective
• Language of teaching testing

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The delivery of PASEC results

• Very little evaluation culture and knowledge
• Political context of education in sub-Saharan
  francophone countries
• The policy makers are in majority civil servant
  teachers
• The teachers unions are very strong
• There are no scientific PASEC like studies in the
  countries
• Few technical background on assessment

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Recent works

• 2006 publications Chad Mauritania national
  reports, technical document on IRT
• To be released soon
• Guinea thematic study on initial pedagogical
  training of teachers and its links to outcomes
• To be released early 2007
• Cameroon, Madagascar, Benin national reports
• English version of the publication
   Repetition 
• Methodological guideline
• More International database, technical notes

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Policy issues for further studies

• Effective schooling time ? pilot tools to collect
  information along the year on pupils and teachers
  absenteeism
• Pupils health, nutrition SES ? uneasy
  measurement ? merge with household and health
  surveys
• Community participation ? new type of school
  management ? questionnaire to be addressed to
  Pupils Parents Association
• Monitoring quality (Cameroon, Madagascar, Burkina
  Faso, Senegal, Gabon) ? the challenge of equity
• Use of national languages

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Methodological development

• New tests 2007
• New sampling weighting procedures
• Use of IRT techniques
• More systematic use of multilevel modelling
• ? Trade off between methodological development
  national technical capacities

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Recent financial partnerships

• CONFEMEN - World Bank Institute
• WB/DGF-IEA funds to strengthen its capacity
  building program
• 3 sub-regional workshops
• OIF financial participation has increased

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Challenges for PASEC

• Greater integration into the scientific community
• Development of methodology (sampling,
  comparability)
• Tests equating with national assessment other
  international programs

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Thank you for your attention !

• Contacts
• pasec_at_sentoo.sn
• www.confemen.org
• Questions ?