Formative Assessment Design and Delivery At Aga Khan Foundation

Terms of Reference

1. Introduction

The Aga Khan Foundation (AKF), founded by His Highness the Aga Khan in 1967, is a member of the Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN), one of the world’s leading poverty solutions networks. AKDN’s integrated approach makes long-term investments, builds permanent institutions, and cultivates an active civil society, impacting tens of millions of people annually in 30 countries. Alongside its sister AKDN agencies, AKF implements innovative, community-driven solutions that are based in decades of experience, learning and evaluation. In East Africa, AKF is managing a robust and expanding portfolio of multi-sectorial initiatives that includes investments in education, early childhood development, sustainable economic development, and civil society strengthening.

1. Background

AKF, in partnership with a global consortium of private foundations, is implementing Schools2030, a 10-year (2020-2030) learning improvement programme. The ten-year initiative is a participatory action research and learning improvement programme based in 1,000 government schools across the ten countries. Using the principles of Human-Centred Design (HCD) and focusing on the key transition years of ages 5, 10, and 15. Schools230 is also supporting out of schools’ children. Schools2030 seeks to catalyse locally rooted education solutions that can inform systems-level approaches for improving holistic learning outcomes. The three-step process requires teachers to assess children’s learning including out of school children throughout; during Step 1 to ‘Assess’ and during Step 2 to track children’s learning progression to understand the efficacy of their innovation as they test, reflect, and iterate these to improve the design.

Critical to these assessments is that these are conducted with and for teachers, ultimately putting the power of assessment and assessment data into the hands of teachers. These assessments will be developed to explicitly assess children’s competency and progress in specific learning domains defined by the Schools2030 National Advisory Committee and teachers themselves.

1. Objective of the Learning Assessment

AKF is seeking to partner with a consultant to develop holistic assessment for learning, for out of school cohort. These assessments will be conducted at the start and the end of the year, these assessments will inform the design process and provide the teacher with an accurate baseline-endline of their students’ learning to determine the impact of their innovation.

1. Scope of work

The partner consultant or organisation will collaborate with the AKF Education team, namely the Regional Assessment Coordinator, the Regional Education and ECD Advisor, the National Schools2030 Coordinator and Global Assessment Partner, to develop and review items for use in formative assessments, develop test specification and construction of operational and field tests among out of school children (15-year-old). Specifically, the consultant will:

• Develop an assessment framework
• Apply best practices in item development and test development, involvement in standard interpretation and appropriate aliment determinations
• Position requires skills in developing life skills assessment in out of school cohorts
• Lead item writing and item data review meetings and provide content expertise in those meetings as necessary.
• Provide technical expertise in defining the learning domains and competences (both academic and non-academic domains) for the out of school cohort.
• Develop and conduct item development workshops for 5 learning domains, both academic and non-academic domains for out of school children
• Some travel may be required for item construction related meetings
• Field-test the items and refine them where necessary
• Ensure that the items develop are of high quality.
• Classify items according to pre-specified content dimensions.
• Ensure accuracy of item content, keying, and item validations.

1. Expected Deliverables

• Develop an assessment framework that details the course of action and test specification
• Defined domains and competences that will be assessed
• High Quality Holistic Assessment for Learning tools for out of school cohort (15-year-olds)
• Pre-pilot and pilot the tools
• Train the enumerators on how to administer the tools
• Draft and share the pre-pilot and pilot reports and make necessary recommendations based on the data from filed testing

1. Deliverable Days

• Contract signing – 1st July 2022
• Defining domains and competences to be measured (1) day
• Item construction (15) days and submission of 1st draft
• Incorporation of inputs from AKF team and Partners (2 days)
• Pre-piloting preparations and training (2) days
• Data cleaning and pre-pilot report writing (4)
• Submission of the pre-pilot report (1) day
• In-cooperation of inputs based on the data from the pre-pilot
• Piloting tools preparations and training (2 days)
• Data analysis & reporting, and submission of 2nd draft (2) days
• Presentation of findings (1) day

1. Contract duration

The partnership will be valid from 1st July 2022 – 30th September 2022. This contract can be extended based on performance and mutual agreement by both parties.

1. Qualifications Required

• Master’s degree in Education
• At least 4 years of experience in teaching / working with out of school’s children
• Experience in item development, life skills assessment is preferred
• General knowledge of test development including processing, scoring, and reporting on student learning assessment is preferred.
• Must have outstanding written and verbal communication skills and the ability to work in partnerships
• Ability to work independently in a timely and organized manner.
• Ability to engage with various stakeholders in open dialogue and value diverse opinions with maturity and tact, proven diplomacy, and cultural sensitivity.
• Willingness to explore and experiment with new ideas and approaches in own work.
• Proficiency in Windows MS Office (Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook)

1. Criteria for selection

All submissions will be assessed on the following criteria:

• Technical proposal 40%
• Technical experience 30%
• Value for Money 30%