Evaluation Institute director reflects on reaction to assessment 
Over the last couple months, Mr. Al-Sayed has spent a good portion of his
time talking about the QCEA, explaining to educators, the media and the public
the results of the test and why it matters. Here, he talks about the response to
the test results among different sectors.
Q. What has reaction to the results been among the different groups with whom
you have met?
Of course there are different kinds of reactions. Some people say this is not
a fair test and it is not fair results. Some people say yes these are the facts,
this is what the numbers tell us. But what is important for us and what is
important I think for the education system is to have this kind of discussion,
to raise these questions, to have one measure that everyone respects and says
okay let us measure ourselves according to this tool. This is mostly what has
happened during and after releasing the results. There has been a lot of
discussion, and I can see this as a positive sign.
Q. Do you feel schools, educators, and students are taking ownership of the
results in a way that will prompt them to take the QCEA seriously and work to
improve their performance yearly?
I think this is the first time for the education system to have this kind of
test and this kind of results. So I can’t say that they really have ownership of
the test, but there will be a period of time until they can grasp the test, the
results, the way we present the results, and to have all the pieces that
construct this test. I think some schools have started to put into place some
improvement plans: what are the aspects of the school we need to improve, how
can we improve the results, which subjects of the test do we need to focus on.
However, most people ask for more, ask for more specific results related to
their school. Some called several times asking about the results for the
students even, at the student level.
Q. While the Evaluation Institute collects testing data on an individual
level, it has thus far released only collective numbers, using the figures as
indicators of national trends rather than individual performance. Why is that,
and have you considered releasing the results on a student-by-student basis?
We think it could do more harm than good to the students, for several
reasons. One of them is that the implementation of the reform just started and
the other one is that the curriculum standards which the test is based on were
just in implementation for six months (at the time of testing). Some students
didn’t take the test seriously. We don’t want some kids or parents to receive a
report card about their kid and they have either the lowest mark or zero or
absent or so on. The main purpose we focus on of the test -- and the whole idea
of evaluation actually -- is to improve education and to hold schools
accountable. But next year we can release the results at the student level and
then we will have a kind of progress of the students at each school.
Q. Although the Evaluation Institute has held public forums and private
meetings on the results, anecdotal evidence indicates that key players, such as
teachers, remain in the dark about the QCEA. Are you satisfied with the level of
communication with teachers in particular?
We always need communication. But we depend on the schools for that. We
invited all the principals and representatives of the teachers, for science and
math and Arabic and English. And we did that for all the schools, almost 300
schools. And we encourage the schools to take the results, to sit with their
teachers and try to explain to them. Some schools did and some schools didn’t.
But again, if schools don’t have the initiative to take this responsibility and
try to communicate the results, we can’t do this to satisfaction.
Q. In your meetings with educators, some Ministry of Education schools have
raised questions about whether the QCEA is fair to them, since they do not give
it as much importance as Independent Schools do and the subjects tested are
closer to what the IS are teaching. How do you respond?
In general, the schools of the Ministry of Education were not happy with the
results, even though I can have the counter-argument saying they just have to
look at the results, and understand the results, and then analyze them. There
are some points in the results that actually they should be proud of. The
Independent Schools were in practice for one year so most of the students who
are in these schools were in Ministry of Education schools. And also some of the
Ministry of Education schools, at a school level, did better, or almost equal,
to Independent Schools. The idea here is that we need to focus on the school, it
doesn’t matter the label -- Ministry of Education or Independent School or
private Arabic schools -- on how all these schools are doing, and how we can
improve.
Q. Are you satisfied with the format and content of the QCEA? Are any major
changes planned in the assessment tools in the future?
At this stage, I can say yes, we are satisfied. However we need more
alignment of the test, particularly alignment with the curriculum standards, but
as you know the standards set a very high level. We know this test, whatever we
do, will be limited because it has some rules and conditions. We are using paper
and pencil. We do some kind of listening test but what about speaking, what
about other aspects of the learning process. So there are aspects of learning
and education that can not be measured by this test. There are other forms of
tests, like portfolios, like projects, and other formats, which we believe we
should develop the framework and the schools should implement. So I will be more
satisfied having developed the other wing of the comprehensive assessment
framework. Also, the test is really a long test. With this length, it is
actually to cover as much as we can from the standards. But I think it is long
for kids to take. So we would like to reduce the time when we develop the other
parts of the assessment framework.
Q. Qatari students have recently taken a handful of international assessment
tests. Are they ready to be compared to their peers globally?
At least now the students, who are the most important in this process besides
of course the teachers, have been through this kind of test, which is a
standardized test, for two years. So they are used to this kind of setting. I
hope they will take it seriously. If we miss this year, we have to wait either
three or four years. It is a good time for us at the beginning of the reform.
For the country, it is very important to have some kind of base line,
international base line, so they can compare the progress of the reform to other
countries and over time.
Q. What impact do the assessment results have on education policy and reform?
We actually discussed this at high levels, at the Supreme Education Council.
It was very clear that with all the support for the Independent Schools, which
are supposed to be the leading schools in the reform, even though some of these
schools did better on this scale, we are not satisfied with the general level
and the SEC is not satisfied with the general results. We can see from the
results that most of the schools, even the Independent Schools, are in the
middle range. In general this is a support for the reform.
At least now we can
say okay we have a base line and we can measure the progress. But for the
Independent Schools a lot, a lot needs to be done. For the rest of the schools,
the SEC published the curriculum standards and they are high standards, so the
rest of the schools can use these standards to improve the education level. In
general I can say, yes, this will support the initiative. But also it will put
pressure on schools and authorities.
