CURRICULUM EVALUATION & STUDENT ASSESSMENT

This module offers opportunities for curriculum professionals to develop their understanding of
curriculum evaluation and student assessment by exploring:

International and regional trends and rationales for curriculum evaluation and student learning
assessment;
Types and methods of curriculum evaluation and student assessment;
Approaches to the restructuring of evaluation and assessment systems.

This module is organized in three activities:

1. Curriculum evaluation. The participant is guided through an analytical schema to plan the
evaluation of curricula.
2. Student assessment. Participants examine considerations about student assessment that
are regularly included in curriculum materials.
3. Assessment of learning outcomes in specific content areas. Strategies and special
modalities for the assessment of learning outcomes are analyzed for content areas recently
included in curricula.

Following these activities is a Resources section which contains a list of discussion papers and
other resources referred to in the activities, and a series of additional reading materials.

Conceptual framework
Curriculum evaluation is a necessary and important aspect of any national education system. It
provides the basis for curriculum policy decisions, for feedback on continuous curriculum adjustments
and processes of curriculum implementation.

The fundamental concerns of curriculum evaluation relate to:

Effectiveness and efficiency of translating government education policy into educational

practice;
Status of curriculum contents and practices in the contexts of global, national and local
concerns;
The achievement of the goals and aims of educational programmes.

Student assessment is an important aspect of curriculum evaluation which helps to facilitate the
understanding of the impact and outcome of education programmes. A fundamental measure of the
success of any curriculum is the quality of student learning. Knowing the extent to which students
have achieved the outcomes specified in the curriculum is fundamental to both improving teaching
and evaluating the curriculum.

Curriculum evaluation
The term evaluation generally applies to the process of making a value judgment. In education, the
term evaluation is used in reference to operations associated with curricula, programs, interventions,
methods of teaching and organizational factors. Curriculum evaluation aims to examine the impact of
implemented curriculum on student (learning) achievement so that the official curriculum can be
revised if necessary and to review teaching and learning processes in the classroom. Curriculum
evaluation establishes:

Specific strengths and weaknesses of a curriculum and its implementation;

Critical information for strategic changes and policy decisions;
Inputs needed for improved learning and teaching;
Indicators for monitoring.

Curriculum evaluation may be an internal activity and process conducted by the various units within
the education system for their own respective purposes. These units may include national Ministries
of Education, regional education authorities, institutional supervision and reporting systems,
departments of education, schools and communities.
Curriculum evaluation may also be external or commissioned review processes. These may be
undertaken regularly by special committees or task forces on the curriculum, or they may be
research-based studies on the state and effectiveness of various aspects of the curriculum and its
implementation. These processes might examine, for example, the effectiveness of curriculum
content, existing pedagogies and instructional approaches, teacher training and textbooks and
instructional materials.

Student assessment
The ultimate goal of curriculum evaluation is to ensure that the curriculum is effective in promoting
improved quality of student learning. Student assessment therefore connotes assessment of student
learning. Assessment of student learning has always been a powerful influence on how and what
teachers teach and is thus an important source of feedback on the appropriateness implementation of
curriculum content.

Fulfilling the diverse objectives of diagnosis, certification and accountability requires different kinds of
assessment instruments and strategies selected to achieve specific purposes. Assessment of student
learning could be summative or formative, and there are various types of tests to address different
needs such as standardized tests, performance-based tests, ability tests, aptitude tests and
intelligence tests.

Key-words
Evaluation, Assessment, Assessment Instruments and Tools, Impact, Learning Outcomes, Curriculum
Evaluation, Performance, Effectiveness, Decentralization, Accountability, Internal Evaluation, External
Evaluation.

Activity 1: Curriculum evaluation

In relation to curriculum, evaluation is the process of making value judgements about the merit or
worth of a part or the whole of a curriculum. The nature of a curriculum evaluation often depends on
its audience and purpose. The potential audiences include:

Policy makers and other stakeholders (administrators, teachers, students, parents,

communities) to inform future action.
 Donors to attract funding or to report on the utilization of funds.
Researchers for international comparison and identification of effective practices.

Evaluation of curricula is typically concerned with the:

Impact of the curriculum:

o on individual students, their needs, their level of engagement and their performance;
o on society, including the appropriateness of values communicated and attitudes
fostered, and the level of public satisfaction;
o on the economy including labour markets as an indicator of economic development;
process through which the curriculum was developed;
content and design of the curriculum compared with:
o recent social, technological, economic or scientific changes;
o recent advances in educational research and educational paradigms;
possible future directions for curriculum change.