The International Association for Educational Assessment International Standards for Educational Assessment Organisations
Frequently Asked Questions
- What are the merits of the IAEA standards compared with other published Standards?
- What benefits would organisations gain from completing the evaluation exercise?
- Will the IAEA grant accreditation to organisations which are able to meet the Standard’s requirements?
- Have the Standards been developed with due consideration given to the educational curriculum?
- Does the Standards cover the role of Information Technology (IT) in an educational assessment organisation?
- What is the anticipated time and effort for an organisation in completing the self-evaluation exercise?
- Does IAEA expect organisations to complete both the self-evaluation and peer evaluation in completing the exercise?
- In completing the second part of the exercise (peer evaluation), does IAEA expect the third party to conduct the evaluation anew, or to review and comment on the self-evaluation results of the organisation?
- Does the IAEA expect organisations to submit their evaluation results to the Association?
- Is there support available from the IAEA to organisations which are completing the evaluation exercise?
1. What are the merits of the IAEA standards compared with other published Standards?
The IAEA Standards is a very practical framework covering the quality of assessments, the organisation itself and the people who contribute to the work of an organisation, as well as key operations of an assessment cycle. It is applicable to assessment organisations involved in delivering an assessment – from either registration through assessment to certification (in other words, the entire assessment delivery cycle) or engaged in any stage(s) of the cycle. The Standards is aligned to the vision of IAEA to contribute towards and facilitate organisations in improving their assessments and examination systems.
2. What benefits would organisations gain from completing the evaluation exercise?
The International Standards for Educational Assessment Organisations (the Standards) can encourage self-reflection and motivate organisations to review and question ‘taken-for-granted’ practices by challenging their assumptions. Through the evaluation exercise, organisations would be able to identify their strengths and areas for improvement. In developing the Standards, a number of organisations took part in completing a pre-pilot or pilot exercise to trial using the Standards and they all found the Standards to be useful and benefited from the exercise.
3. Will the IAEA grant accreditation to organisations which are able to meet the Standard’s requirements?
The Standards is intended to encourage self-reflection and to motivate organisations to review and question ‘taken-for-granted’ practices by challenging their assumptions. At this moment, the IAEA is not offering independent, third-party evaluation of the conformity of an organisation against the Standards. In other words, the IAEA is not currently an accreditation body. The latter may be pursued by the IAEA in future. Comments from organisations on how to make best use of the Standards are welcome
4. Have the Standards been developed with due consideration given to the educational curriculum?
In Section 3 of the Standards (under ‘Examination Development’) references are made to the importance of aligning the development of good quality questions and their mark schemes to the curriculum and examination syllabus. Examples include curriculum coverage over time.
5. Does the Standards cover the role of Information Technology (IT) in an educational assessment organisation?
IT plays an important role in modern assessment organisations. As the Standards was intentionally written to be non-prescriptive and be applicable to organisations of different sizes, a general framework and benchmark of good practices in IT for organisations was outlined in the Standards. This includes the following.
- Ensuring proper IT services to support the operational delivery of assessments and other strategic goals.
- A scalable, reliable, and secure IT infrastructure to manage and support assessment activities.
- Securing user and assessment data; and ensuring privacy and access controls of digitised assessment and the IT reporting system.
6. What is the anticipated time and effort for an organisation in completing the self-evaluation exercise?
Some guidance is provided in Table 1 of the Standards. Organisations are not expected to spend excessive time and effort in completing the exercise. They are given the autonomy to complete the exercise in a timing and scale that best suits their operational needs.
7. Does IAEA expect organisations to complete both the self-evaluation and peer evaluation in completing the exercise?
Organisations are expected to complete the first part (self-evaluation) of the exercise. If they can identify a suitable third party, it would be good to complete the second part (the peer evaluation) as well. Otherwise, it would be fine just to complete first part of the exercise.
8. In completing the second part of the exercise (peer evaluation), does IAEA expect the third party to conduct the evaluation anew, or to review and comment on the self-evaluation results of the organisation?
It’s the latter, i.e., the third party is expected to study the self-evaluation results of the organisation and then conduct an independent evaluation for external validation of the self-assessment review processes and outcomes.
9. Does the IAEA expect organisations to submit their evaluation results to the Association?
IAEA welcomes feedback and suggestions for improvements from organisations after completion of the exercise, using the feedback form provided. Organisations should not submit their evaluation results to the IAEA.
10. Is there support available from the IAEA to organisations which are completing the evaluation exercise?
The Standards and other supporting documents are available on the IAEA’s website for the reference of assessment organisations. (https://iaea.info/iaea-international-standards/ ) The Recognition Committee of the IAEA is happy to provide support and guidance to member organisations that seek it.. Organisations interested in completing the exercise can indicate their interest via email (recognitioncommittee@iaea.info ). A member of the Recognition Committee will get in contact with the organisation to follow up.