“The effectiveness of the entire assessment process will be greatly hindered
if the school makes no effective use of the assessment information. So we urge
teachers and administrators to learn from and act upon the information provided
by the assessments, otherwise the entire process will be of little or no benefit
to our children,” said the SEC’s Evaluation Institute director Mr. Adel Al Sayed
at a forum held for teachers and principals to announce the release of the 2005
Qatar Comprehensive Educational Assessment (QCEA) results at the Doha Marriott
Hotel.
Over 650 educators from the Ministry of Education (MoE), Independent and
private Arabic schools attended the forum.
The
results of the QCEA indicate that Independent school students scored higher than
the MoE and private Arabic schools, “although much work needs to be done in
order to help students meet the standards as this year’s results indicate that
most students’ performance is either approaching the new standards or below
these demanding criteria put in place,” said Mr. Al Sayed. The results also show
that girls have outdone the boys in every subject, and non-Qatari students
performed better than Qatari students.
Although the Evaluation Institute administered the QCEA for the first time in
2004, this year’s data are of higher quality because they are based on tests
aligned with the newly developed curriculum standards, which the SEC implemented
in September 2004. The 2005 QCEA results are indicators of where students stand
in terms of achievement of the Education Institute’s curriculum standards.
The QCEA results from the April 2005 administration of Qatar’s assessment in
Arabic, English, mathematics and science included over 80,000 students from MoE,
Independent and private Arabic schools. Tests were conducted on students in
grades 1-12, except science, which was administered to grades 4-12.
The
forum also shed light on School Report Cards, another milestone in Qatar’s
Education Reform Initiative. In his presentation, Dr. Yousef Al Mulla, Principal Evaluation Officer at the School Evaluation Office provided background information about
the School Report Card (SRC) that will be issued at the end of this month. He
explained what was assessed and how the results will be applied and reported. He
reiterated that that School Report Cards (SRCs) are designed to help parents
become better informed, encourage and empower them to be more involved in
schools and their children's schooling. A SRC has been prepared for each MoE,
Independent and private Arabic school in Qatar.
Releasing the QCEA and SRC results aims to improve students’ education, schools
output, provide additional and rich information to the school, parents and
teachers for accountability reasons. This consequently leads to improvement of
schools and better outcomes for the individual children concerned.
Related:
Initial Results of
QCEA 2005
Press release:
Education Reform Continues with Release of 2005 QCEA
results
Press conference
- Assessment results to be announced (Presentation)
Gulf Times -
Independent School students outdo govt. school pupils
The Peninsula -
Education report released
