We’re very pleased to announce that Evidence Based Education has this month partnered with Cambridge University’s Cambridge Assessment, in order to transform how teachers are trained to understand and use assessment in schools. This partnership sees the launch on 11th October of Assessment Academy.
Designed and taught by our Director of Education, Stuart Kime (@StuartKime) and Durham University Professor of Education, Rob Coe (@ProfCoe), Assessment Academy is a four-day training course on high-quality assessment design and analysis. Aligning with the best available evidence on teacher learning, this is a truly evidence-based training programme.
Responding to calls from teachers, school leaders, teacher unions, academics and government, Assessment Academy will provide world-class assessment training and support at a time of massive upheaval in English schools. With the pilot course launching on October 11th in five schools around the north-east of England, Assessment Academy will begin to upskill teachers in a crucial part of every child’s schooling. The ambition is to make this intensive training and support available to all teachers everywhere, via an innovative online learning system currently under development.
In partnership with Cambridge Assessment, we’re taking on a challenge that has been overlooked for too long. Daisy Christodoulou, Head of Assessment at Ark Academies, recognises the timeliness and relevance of addressing this challenge: “National changes to exams mean that better training in assessment has never been more important. It’s great to see that Evidence Based Education and Cambridge Assessment are responding to this with new high-quality assessment training for teachers. It is much-needed.”
John Tomsett, Headteacher at Huntington School in York, agrees: “Assessment is key to improving the quality of teaching and learning, so we need to upskill our teachers – sooner rather than later!”
We’re unrelenting in our determination to improve the assessment skills of teachers. Teachers tell us they feel ‘assessment-illiterate’; government tells us something should be done; teacher unions call for more and better training… Yet nobody has addressed this head-on. So we felt it was time for us to do something and try to help.
