Consultant for strengthening national assessment

The consultant will provide independent technical review and advisory support to strengthen the PARAKH Rashtriya Sarvekshan (PRS) as a national, system-level assessment of school education. The role involves reviewing current approaches, identifying gaps and opportunities, and proposing practical pathways for consideration by relevant education authorities in India.

Responsibilities

• Review relevant PRS and previous NAS documentation, including the assessment framework, domains and competencies, test design, sampling, contextual questionnaires, analysis and reporting.
• Review relevant recommendations from previous national technical discussions and relevant international assessment practices and approaches.
• Identify key strengths, gaps and opportunities for further strengthening PRS as a national/system-level assessment.
• Provide technical recommendations and possible pathways to strengthen assessment framework and competencies, comparability across assessment cycles, inclusive assessment, learning gaps and misconceptions, contextual and explanatory evidence, and analysis and interpretation.
• Examine how PRS evidence can better inform education system improvement including curriculum, textbooks, pedagogy, teacher development, assessment practices, and teaching-learning resources.
• Propose an assessment-to-system-improvement pathway linking PRS evidence and identified learning gaps and misconceptions to diagnosis, implications, and system level responses.
• Develop a technical pathway for strengthening PRS 2027 including identifying and prioritising technical areas, outlining issues, rationale, options, recommendations, methodological considerations, data and analysis implications, expertise requirements, and key decisions.
• Distinguish between improvements for PRS 2027 and areas requiring further technical development or longer-term consideration.
• Present a consolidated set of recommendations and a practical technical pathway for consideration by PARAKH/NCERT and DoSE&L, MoE.

Requirements

• Advanced university (Master's degree or above) degree in Educational Assessment/Measurement; Educational Psychology/ Statistics/ Psychometrics/ Social Sciences; or another closely related field
• A minimum of 12 years of professional experience in educational assessment, large-scale assessment, learning assessment, psychometrics, assessment research or related areas.
• Fluency in English is required.
• Substantial multi-country experience in large-scale national and/or international educational assessments, including work across diverse education-system contexts.
• Demonstrated expertise in assessment framework development/review, competency-based assessment, assessment design, psychometrics, data analysis and interpretation.
• Demonstrated experience in comparability across assessment cycles, including linking, scaling and trend measurement, and in inclusive assessment for diverse learner groups, including learners with disabilities.
• Experience analysing learning gaps, misconceptions, proficiency levels, response patterns and contextual factors associated with learning outcomes.
• Demonstrated ability to translate assessment evidence into actionable education policy and system-improvement recommendations, with experience working with ministries of education, national assessment institutions and/or international organisations across multiple countries.
• Strong written and verbal communication in English.
• Desirable: Experience with national large-scale assessments in low- and middle-income countries, particularly in Asia.
• Desirable: Knowledge/experience of PISA, PIRLS, SEA-PLM or comparable international/regional assessments.
• Desirable: Experience working with national assessment institutions and/or ministries of education on assessment-related initiatives.
• Desirable: Familiarity with Indian school education and assessment context.
• Desirable: Prior experience with UN agencies/government/international NGOs.

Skills

• Educational Assessment
• Large-scale Assessment
• Learning Assessment
• Psychometrics
• Research and Assessment
• Assessment Framework Development
• Competency-Based Evaluation
• Assessment Design
• Data Analysis
• Data Interpretation
• Assessment Linking
• Assessment Scaling
• Trend Monitoring
• Learning Gap Analysis
• Proficiency Level Analysis
• Response Pattern Analysis
• Contextual Factor Analysis
• Education Policy Translation
• Stakeholder Engagement
• National Assessment Institutions
• Ministries of Education
• Inclusive Assessment Design
• System Improvement

Languages

English