11 October 2016
Cambridge Assessment today announced a partnership with an innovative Durham University spin-off to improve teacher training.
Cambridge Assessment, which itself provides leadership and management training in the key skill of assessment, has partnered with Evidence Based Education and Rob Coe, Professor of Education at Durham University and Director of the Centre for Evaluation and Monitoring, to transform how teachers are trained to understand and use assessment in schools.
Evidence Based Education (EBE) is launching Assessment Academy – designed by former teachers Stuart Kime and Prof. Coe – to provide world-class assessment training and support at a time of significant change in English schools, including the removal of National Curriculum Levels and reforms to GCSEs and A Levels. The pilot course launches today and it is intended that this be followed by an innovative online learning system currently under development at EBE.
Daisy Christodoulou, Head of Assessment at Ark Academies, said: “National changes to exams mean that better training in assessment has never been more important. It’s great to see that Evidence Based Education and Cambridge Assessment are responding to this with new high-quality assessment training for teachers. It is much-needed.”
Tim Oates, Group Director of Assessment Research and Development at Cambridge Assessment, commented: “Our mission is to drive up standards in education and I’m delighted to partner with EBE and Durham to take that mission into a wider field. All three sides believe that robust research should be at the heart of pragmatic decision-making in schools. Our partnership will enable teachers and Senior Leadership Teams to use their data to do exactly that.”
Stuart Kime of EBE explained: “Teachers tell us they feel ‘assessment-illiterate’; government tells us something should be done; teacher unions call for more and better training… Yet nobody has addressed this head-on. So we felt it was time for us to do something and try to help.”