Authors and co-authors:
Laila Issayeva (Center for Pedagogical Measurements, Nazarbayev Intellectual schools, Kazakhstan), Nico Dieteren, Sjoerd Crans (Institute of Educational Measurement Cito, the Netherlands)
Abstract
Kazakhstan has started modernization ofsecondary education sector to educate functionally literate citizens.Nazarbayev Intellectual Schools(NIS)became an experimental ground for educational reformsincluding a combination of assessment methods supporting implementation of a new curriculum.Since the new curriculum was constructed following the spiral principle, it is crucial to track how well students seize what was previously taught to provide them with the relevant pedagogical support to improve learning.Student performance monitoring system in Mathematicshas been being developed by NISteachers and educational specialiststogether with the subject experts from Cito (the Netherlands) starting from 2011. Theaimisto provide students and teachers with objective information aboutstudentprogress in masteringNIS Mathematics curriculum.Objectivity of reported student performance data isguaranteed by standardized procedures foritem construction,psychometric analysis,standard settingand describingability levels. There isa substantialbank of monitoringitemsthat are‘ready for test’. However, finalizing thedevelopment process of themonitoring system, NIS and Citodecided to conduct a quality assurance activity in order to critically validate the existing item bank. This study reports the results of item bank validation heldby the experts from both sides.