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​​​International indicators for improving and developing the educational process:الاختبارات الدولية، اختبار القدرات، الاختبار التحصيلي، اختبار التيمز، اختبار تاليس، اختبار باريلز، باريلس، اختبار بيزا

The Ministry of Education has assigned a number of continuous evaluation indicators with the aim of improving and developing the educational process, its procedures, and outputs, through national and international tests and the "ranking index" system. These tests determine the level of schools, offices, and education departments in the standardized tests implemented on students of general education for admission to universities, as well as government and private colleges. This contributes to the improvement of public education through continuous cooperation between the Ministry of Education and the Education and Training Evaluation Authority. These tests are carried out by measuring and calculating grades based on the average scores of students on the admission tests during the last three academic years. These tests also provided the advantage of detailed research at the level of offices and education departments, and at the national level for boys' and girls’ schools, in addition to the possibility of searching on the map of the Kingdom, and the possibility of searching for a specific school or choosing it directly from the map.

National and international tests are considered among the most prominent continuous assessment indicators globally. They are supervised by organizations with long experience and high efficiency in the field of education and its evaluation, such as the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA).

These tests are an important indicator of the level of students' achievement in basic subjects and educational skills. They contribute to the possibility of comparing students' academic achievement in different educational systems with their cultural, economic, and social backgrounds, which helps the Ministry to find the most important and best means for leading to better education and achieving the vision of the Kingdom 2030.

The TIMSS international study aims to determine the levels of students in the fourth and eighth grades in the concepts they have learned in science and mathematics. The IEA compares the results of these tests between the participating countries. The acronym TIMSS is defined as the Trends of International Mathematics and Science Studies, which means global trends in academic achievement in mathematics and science. These tests were implemented in their current format under the name TIMSS for the first time in 1995. They are held periodically every 4 years, and the last application of these tests was in 2019 with the participation of more than 60 countries. The tests were conducted for the first time in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in 2003. Then, it participated in successive sessions in the years (2007, 2011, 2015, and 2019).

In each session of the TIMSS international exams, the Ministry of Education works on:

  1. Conducting an analytical study of all the paragraphs allowed for all the previous sessions and the performance of the Kingdom's students in them, and presenting a simplified report that teachers and supervisors can benefit from.
  2. Training teachers in mathematics and science teaching strategies by upgrading and developing their skills in the standards targeted in international tests.
  3. Alignment between TIMSS test standards and curricula
  4. Conducting continuous tests simulating the international test TIMSS for students in the fourth and eighth grades. 
  5. Working on a study plan that includes allocating an hour per week to expose students to similar TIMSS models; allocating 10 minutes of time for all lessons to train students on writing skills (paper-keyboard); and training students on writing skills of all kinds (paper-keyboard).
  6. Testing students on models similar to the international test TIMSS, with issuing indicators at the level of each school, education office, and education department.
  7. Follow-up the supervision of the running of tests through a supervisory plan to follow up the implementation of operations in the educational environment.
  8. Building an integrated media plan targeting the general community and the educational community.

Objectives:

  1. Collecting comprehensive data on the concepts and attitudes learned in science and mathematics by fourth and eighth grade students.
  2. Comparing students' achievement in science and mathematics with other educational systems of varying cultural, economic, and social backgrounds.
  3. Access to the most important and best means of leading to better education by comparing a country's test results with those of other developed countries in the context of educational policies and systems that lead to high student achievement rates.

The entity supervising the tests:

The tests are conducted and supervised by International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA).

Study tools:

The participating countries contribute to the preparation of the general framework of the tests and the formulation of their content under the supervision and management of the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA). Each participating country is also responsible for translating and adapting the content of the tools and implementing tests on the sample schools representing the state. The study tools can be limited as follows:

  1. Question booklets:
    • Science (for fourth and eighth grades).
    • Mathematics (for fourth and eighth grades).
  2. Surveys:
    • The school (to be answered by the school leader or his representative).
    • Math and science teacher.
    • The student.
    • The guardian of the student (especially in the fourth grade of elementary school)​.

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia participates in TALIS survey studies aiming to survey the opinions of teachers and school leaders on teaching methods, classroom environment, professional development, and job satisfaction. These surveys, or what is known as TALIS, are supervised by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). This is done through centrally supervising the progress of the study in cooperation and coordination with the participating countries. These studies are known as TALIS, an acronym for Teaching and Learning International Survey, which means the International Survey of Teaching and Learning. The study was carried out for the first time in 2008 AD, and it is held periodically every 5 years with the participation of more than 38 countries.

The study was held for the first time in Saudi Arabia in 2018, with the participation of 20 intermediate schools, distributed throughout the Kingdom (20 school leaders and 334 teachers). Later in the same year, the questionnaire was applied to 199 schools in the intermediate stage, distributed over the regions of the Kingdom (199 school leaders and 3573 teachers).

Objectives:

  1. Opening the field for teachers and school leaders to participate in the evaluation and improvement of education by sharing their views on the educational environment.
  2. Benefit from the results of other countries' participation in the study and the programs they use to develop the educational environment.
  3. Measuring the current educational environment and determining the impact of development programs in comparison to the previous session's study results.
  4. Providing educational decision-makers with indicators and results that were analyzed and deduced through the opinions and experiences of actual practitioners in the educational environment.

Study tools:

Each country works on translating and adapting the tools under the supervision and management of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). The Ministry also undertakes the implementation of the study on the schools of the candidate sample through a questionnaire for the school leader and another for the schoolteacher. The duration of each questionnaire ranges between 45 and 60 minutes and contains about 60 main multiple-choice questions.

PIRLS tests are supervised internationally by the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA).  Each participating country supervises the implementation of the test. The test is prepared by the IEA to determine the levels of fourth-grade students in the concepts and situations they have learned in reading and to compare the results between the participating countries. These tests are given in both the Arabic and English languages.

The study was held for the first time in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in 2011 and it participated in the session that followed in 2016. The actual exams will be implemented in September and October 2021.

Objectives:

  1. Collecting comprehensive data on students' abilities in reading, comprehension, and analysis in the fourth grade of primary school.
  2. Identifying the factors influencing knowledge acquisition, such as educational curricula and practices, the role of the family, and others.
  3. Comparing students' reading achievement in educational systems with different cultural, economic, and social backgrounds.
  4. Access to the most important and best means of leading to better education by comparing the test results of a country with the results of other advanced countries in the educational policies and systems applied, which lead to high achievement rates for students.

Study tools:

The participating countries are working on preparing the overall framework for the tests and formulating their content under the supervision and management of the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA). Each country is also responsible for translating and adapting the tools' content, as well as administering the tests to a representative sample of schools in their country. These tools are:

  1. Question booklets (reading and writing skills).
  2. Surveys:
    • The school (answered by the school leader or his representative).
    • Reading teacher.
    • The student.
    • The student's guardian.

In each session of the PIRLS exams, the Ministry of Education works to:

  1. Allocate 10 minutes from the beginning of each lesson to train students on writing skills (paper-keyboard), reading comprehension strategies, expose students to literary and informational texts in the assigned lessons, and train students on all types of writing skills (paper-keyboard).
  2. Test students weekly in reading comprehension on test forms similar to the international test until the actual test date, with weekly indicators issued at the level of each school, education office, and education administration.
  3. Create a supervisory plan to monitor the implementation of field operations.
  4. Hold competitions aimed at improving reading comprehension that last until the test date.
  5. Build an integrated media plan targeting the general community and the educational community.​

PISA is a study supervised by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) to measure the ability of first-year secondary students (grade 10) to use the knowledge they have acquired in reading, science, and mathematics and to acquire skills to solve life and professional problems they face. OECD supervises the tests internationally. PISA tests are applied to mathematics, science, and reading subjects, targeting students at the age of 15, and the tests are based on both Arabic and English.

The test was held for the first time in Saudi Arabia in 2018, and the Ministry will work on the experimental application by the end of 2021. The actual application of these tests will be at the end of the first quarter of 2022.

Objectives:

  1. Evaluating knowledge, skills, and trends in educational curricula to reflect current changes.
  2. Measuring the students' ability to employ knowledge in daily life situations that they are exposed to in school, at home, and in the community.
  3. Comparing the performance of students and the educational system in the Kingdom to that of students and educational systems in other countries participating in the study.
  4. Measuring the level of the current educational environment and assessing the impact of development programs compared to the results of the study in the previous session.
  5. Assisting policymakers and educational systems in identifying areas of strength and weakness in order to improve the educational environment.

Study tools:

Each country works on translating and adapting the content of the tools under the supervision and management of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and is responsible for implementing the tests on the students and the candidate sample schools. those tools include:

  1. Question booklets:
    • Mathematics.
    • Natural sciences.
    • Reading.

    2. In each session, the organization focuses on one of these areas with 70% (for example, mathematics in 2022 AD), and the remaining 15% for each.

  2. Surveys:

    The study provides multiple choices for surveys, and the Ministry will participate in the following surveys:

    • The school (answered by the school leader or his representative).
    • The student.

In each session of the PISA tests, the Ministry of Education works to:

  1. Conduct an analytical study of all the cleared paragraphs and the performance of the Kingdom’s students in them, and present a simplified report that teachers and supervisors can benefit from.
  2. Provide teachers with training in international test strategies for mathematics, science, reading, and writing, as well as the development of questions to assess higher-order thinking skills.
  3. Work on bringing the PISA test standards and curricula into line.
  4. Organize a centralized PISA test for students in the third intermediate and first-secondary grades (grades 9 and 10).
  5. Work on a study plan that includes allocating an hour per week to expose students to similar PISA models.
  6. Set aside 10 minutes during each lesson to train students in writing skills (paper-keyboard).
  7. Test students on models similar to the international test PISA and issue indicators at the level of each school, education office, and the education department.
  8. Work on a supervisory plan to follow up on the implementation of operations in the educational environment.
  9. Create an integrated media strategy aimed at both the public community and the educational community​.​

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