How IOE’s Expertise in Psychometrics Benefits Global Stakeholders
In late March, IOE hosted a closing session for a series of expert seminars on psychometric research and training that were held as part of the Russia Education Aid for Development (READ) program, a joint initiative between the Russian government and the World Bank. The forum brought together a cohort of strategists, institutional leaders, researchers and representatives of other stakeholders from India, Mongolia, Nepal, Vietnam, Armenia, and Tajikistan.
The READ program, which is framed into several phases and has been underway since 2008, aims to make Russia’s best practices in educational assessment available to other developing nations, so they could build on solid grounds while upgrading their systems for monitoring and testing educational outcomes to deliver more plausible evidence of the quality of learning and what needs to be improved in education.
It was back into 2010 when the newly established Measurements in Psychology & Education Master’s welcomed its first class at IOE. Building on cutting-edge academic expertise, this MA program is recognized as an offering like no other in Russia. Synthesizing in-depth theoretical insights, an extensive hands-on agenda and prime options for R&D networking and internships abroad, the program trains top-notch psychometric professionals who are ready to lead the way on a global scale in conducting high-impact scholarship and delivering robust testing tools across practical dimensions – from educational surveys and assessments to comprehensive solutions in recruitment, HR appraisal, etc. Since 2018, IOE has also offered an innovative, world-class PhD track in Educational Measurement & Testing, which was designed in association with the Boston College Lynch School of Education and the World Bank.
The vast experience that IOE boasts in the realm of psychometric research and training has sparked strong interest among all of the international experts who participated in the seminar series, as representing a deep well of theoretical and applied insights that can be analyzed and adopted by READ’s target nations to help their institutions in charge of educational assessment develop advanced expertise in the field. Representatives of the participant nations have all pledged to further push the frontiers of academic cooperation with IOE across the psychometric agenda and through multiple formats, including joint R&D, internships, exchange programs, etc.
“For historical and other reasons, psychometrics is yet to take shape as a distinct realm of research and professional training in Russia. At that, there has been evidence that clearly speaks to a marked upswing in this academic domain in recent years, as confirmed, for example, by a surging demand for graduates in our MA and PhD programs in psychometrics on the part of various employers. Our overseas colleagues have often remarked on short supply of qualified professionals in assessment design and testing – a major factor that prompts strong interest among numerous international stakeholders to IOE’s research and training expertise in this academic realm,” Inna Antipkina, Academic Supervisor for IOE’s Measurements in Psychology & Education MA comments.
“This series of sessions for global experts in psychometrics was an undisputed success as it has drawn in many policy officials and institutional leaders while also appealing to a massive cohort of testing professionals themselves. This confirms a growing emphasis placed on building a stronger capacity to deliver accurate and fair assessments that help make a difference in education and other dimensions through sharing about state-of-the-art methodologies, models and developments in the field. Obviously, whether top-quality testing tools are available and can be effectively put to use is a factor central to sourcing social data as appropriate and making informed judgements as relevant to various stakeholders. This explains a most keen interest that the participants have expressed in IOE’s international summer schools on psychometrics, alongside our developments that harness such foremost psychometric frameworks as Evidence-centered Design and so on,” Elena Kardanova, Director of the IOE Сenter for Monitoring the Quality in Education notes.
Other domains where IOE has been actively trailblazing in recent years and that have also resonated widely with the READ guest experts were, among others: the skills and competencies of the 21st century, digital transformations in education, computational research methods and social network analysis, etc.