Inclusive standardised large-scale assessments: prospects and promises

On Tuesday 19 March 2024 the Laboratory of International Assessment Studies, NORRAG and REDI hosted a seminar exploring cutting-edge research that seeks to enable international large-scale assessments, including PISA, to become more inclusive, without compromising the rigour and quality of the assessment tools.

A key limitation of standardised large-scale assessments has been that they exclude certain populations – those that might be ‘non-standard’ or ‘outliers’ in one way or another. This is at odds with the philosophy of inclusivity that is now more widely demanded. The needs and rights of neurodiverse students and those with special needs or learning or other disabilities are now acknowledged as being important to recognise.

The seminar war recorded and is now available for those who were unable to attend or would like to review the session.

There was a discussion between Bryan Maddox (Digital Education Futures Initiative, University of Cambridge) and Bruno Zumbo (University of British Columbia) on the impacts of improved accessibility in international large-scale assessments, including digital accessibility technologies and universal design principles. They argue that these new developments afford an opportunity to learn more about the diverse range of test-takers as well as their test-taking experiences.

Ava Guez (OECD) and Elodie Persem (French Ministry of Education) reported on the current status of research on how PISA can be made more inclusive, detailing a proposed pilot study of accessibility options for students with special educational needs. Discussant Moira Faul (NORRAG) provided her expert commentary on the presentations. This was followed by an engaged Q&A session.

Watch the seminar here.