New OEDC Project Will Compare Student Learning Across Countries

Chronicle of Higher Education
February 5, 2010

This brief article introduced a new study to assess student learning outcomes in schools across the world. They hope to collect 30,000 surveys from 14 different countries. The goal is to be able to find what outcomes would be similar near the end of an undergraduate programs in engineering. Some of the criticism is that it is not possible to assess learning the same from different cultures and countries but the study authors express that they are only seeking to evaluate simple and basic skills.

At first I thought this was just another case of lack of buy in. The more I thought about it I think they critics may be right. With all of the cultural differences that are going to exist I would think that you would have to modify the assessment tool so much that the questions would not be asking the same things and much of it would get lost in translation. That being said, I still think there may be some value in conducting the feasibility study and see what comes from it.