Blogs by The Assessment Network

Creative Education Trust (CET) is a UK network of 17 schools in postindustrial and coastal urban centres, educating 13,500 children and young people. They recently completed a bespoke project with the team at Cambridge Assessment Network which involved 60 teachers, 13 subjects and 5 weekly webinars, to reimagine the Trust's assessment framework.

Assessing competence and skills like critical thinking, problem-solving, and collaboration are high on the agenda for educators, employers, and policymakers looking to reimagine an education system fit for the future. In this blog, we discuss the advantages and challenges of assessing competence and so-called '21st-century skills', and how they might be integrated into the curriculum.

Desislava Dimitrova is an assessment expert with over 30 years’ experience in the educational sector. Having developed her knowledge base through both study and as a teacher in Bulgaria, Desislava was keen to get the answers to some of her most pressing questions around assessment – with the help of Cambridge Assessment Network she has been on a journey to find them.

Hear from Loic Menzies, former teacher and Chief Executive of The Centre for Education and Youth, researcher, and policy specialist on the key points and next steps for his series Mapping the Way to a More Equitable Future for Education.

This is the latest in a series of blogs sharing stories about our assessment practitioner community. Kirsty Parkinson, Awarding Assessment Manager at The Chartered Institute of Procurement & Supply shares how she found a passion for assessment and a desire to take a deep dive into the nuts and bolts of it. Here she tells us how our postgraduate programme, the PGCA, equipped her to do just that.

This is the fifth in a series of blogs sharing stories about our assessment practitioner community. Tom Cherry is Head of Qualifications at the Wine & Spirit Education Trust (WSET) and has studied on three of Cambridge Assessment Network’s four A10 series of online courses. Here he talks to us about wanting to get assessment right for his industry, the learners, and the wider assessment community.

This is the fourth in a series of blogs sharing stories about our assessment practitioner community. Educational specialist Gemma Escott talks to Cambridge Assessment Network about how becoming an assessment specialist 'just kind of happened', having to piecemeal together her early professional development and how A101: Introducing the Principles of Assessment allowed her to reflect on her practice amongst other professionals.

Rosalia Valero, Strategic Development Head at Cambridge Assessment English in Mexico, began her career in teaching and training and now works with ministries and educational institutions to transform education in the Americas region. She spoke to us about her career path and why developing a greater understanding of assessment has helped her to ‘fall in love again’ with what she sells.

George Vlachonikolis has taught Economics for A Level and IB for 10 years. Currently he is studying on the Postgraduate Advanced Certificate in Educational Studies: Educational Assessment (PGCA) and in this blog he details how the PGCA has built his confidence and expertise as an assessment practitioner and reflects on the things that have shaped his assessment identity.