Glossary

Assessments for Minimum Proficiency Levels: The Assessments for Minimum Proficiency Levels (AMPLa) are ground-breaking and robust tools developed to measure learning outcomes by identifying the proportion of students achieving the Minimum Proficiency Level (MPL) in reading and mathematics in each level of education. Data from AMPLs are used to report on  the global indicator SDG 4.1.1.

Global Content Framework: The Global Content Framework defines, each for reading and mathematics, the content framework for the three points of measurement (grades 2/3, end of primary, end of lower secondary), and the minimum content that ensures comparability between tests.

Global Item Bank: The Global Item Bank is a public repository of test items developed by the UIS and the World Bank to help countries generate learning data on reading and mathematics.

Global Proficiency Framework: The Global Proficiency Framework (GPF) includes learning standards in reading and mathematics to define minimum proficiency levels that students are expected to have achieved at the end of each school grade level (grades 1 to 9). The framework provides a common reference point to enable countries to use the results of national, regional, and international assessments to report progress on SDG 4.1.1.

Minimum Proficiency Level: The minimum proficiency level (MPL) is the benchmark of basic knowledge in a subject area (mathematics, reading, etc.) at a given age/grade measured through learning assessments.

Non-statistical linking: Non-statistical linking involves matching up definitions of minimum proficiency to test items using subjective judgements. 

Pairwise Comparison: This consists of a group of reading and mathematics experts that evaluate and place assessment items on the same item difficulty scale in an independent way. With this method, each item is compared to other items at least 30 times, and its difficulty is judged by several different experts.

Policy linking: Policy linking (PL) is a standard-setting methodology that allows expressing student learning outcomes from existing assessments to the proficiency levels described in the Global Proficiency Framework. The methodology involves national workshops with teachers and curriculum experts and aims to set benchmarks (or cut scores) on learning assessments to align them across countries and contexts over time.

Rosetta Stone: The Rosetta Stone links together assessments that have been administered in the recent past to build concordance tables that translate the scores resulting from national or regional assessments to scores on international assessments.

Statistical linking: These are methods that help countries map existing assessment data to regional and international assessment data to report on SDG 4.1.1. They use common persons or common items to relate learners’ scores on different assessments.

SDG indicator 4.1.1: Indicator 4.1.1 refers to the “proportion of children and young people (a) in Grade 2 or 3; (b) at the end of primary education; and (c) at the end of lower secondary education achieving at least a minimum proficiency level in (i) reading and (ii) mathematics, by sex.”

Abbreviations

ACER – Australian Council for Educational Research

AMPL – Assessment for Minimum Proficiency Levels

EGMA – Early Grades Mathematics Assessment

EGRA – Early Grades Reading Assessment

ERCE – Regional Comparative and Explanatory Study

FCDO – Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office

GAML – Global Alliance to Monitor Learning

GCF – Global Content Framework

GPF – Global Proficiency Framework

IBE-UNESCO – International Bureau of Education

MICS – Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys

MILO – Monitoring Impacts on Learning Outcomes

MOE – Ministry of Education

MPL – Minimum Proficiency Level

PAL – People’s Action for Learning

PASEC – Programme for the Analysis of Education Systems

PILNA – Pacific Islands Literacy and Numeracy Assessment

PIRLS – Progress in International Reading Literacy Study

PISA – Programme for International Student Assessment

SDG – Sustainable Development Goals

SEA-PLM – Southeast Asia Primary Learning Metrics

SACMEQ – The Southern and Eastern Africa Consortium for Monitoring Education Quality

TIMSS – Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study

UIS – UNESCO Institute for Statistics

UN – United Nations

UNESCO – United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization

USAID – United States Agency for International Development