Annie Vincent
Reporting and Guidance Specialist, Cambridge CEM
Computer-adaptive testing is set to become the ‘gold standard’ for assessing the abilities of school pupils within the next two decades, according to educational experts.
Understanding of student abilities is evolving. Increased access to technology in schools and developments in assessment algorithms have allowed a different kind of testing to emerge. Adaptive testing measures core learning skills and can deliver more accurate markers of pupil capability while saving time for teachers. Although developments in adaptive testing look to embrace AI, it is genuine intelligence (GI) that “remains at the core of education” and this assessment.
Computer-adaptive testing
Cambridge CEM (Centre for Evaluation & Monitoring), one of the first digital adaptive baseline assessment providers, launched MidYIS in 2005, which focuses on vocabulary and mathematic skills. CEM, part of Cambridge University Press & Assessment, supports teachers and educational establishments across 110 countries, providing assessments for students aged 3–18.
Annie Vincent, CEM’s Reporting and Guidance Specialist, explains how the algorithm tailors test question difficulty to individuals. If a student answers correctly, they move to a harder question or back to an easier question if they get it wrong. Vincent notes: “Our assessments are curricula agnostic and able to give a real sense of a child’s ability and capability regardless of which curricula they have been studying.”
Understanding students’ core learning
skills is at the heart of adaptive assessment.
Personalised learning
Adaptive assessments allow more precise results to identify a student’s strengths and weaknesses. This assessment style provides unique, personalised, more engaging assessment experiences for students. It takes less time than traditional tests and reduces teachers’ marking workload. “This assessment style has the ability to change the landscape of a teacher’s day-to-day life and role,” says Vincent, who looks at how data from CEM assessments can be shared with teachers and develops guidance to improve educational outcomes for students. Insights from adaptive tests support personalised learning, with more pinpointed results in key skill areas enabling teachers to get a detailed snapshot of students’ abilities and tailor teaching to address individual needs.
Crucial human touch
Understanding students’ core learning skills is at the heart of adaptive assessment. “We are conscious that AI will always require genuine intelligence with it,” says Vincent. She stresses that teachers know their students best and can “interpret results in the appropriate way” that AI cannot replicate.
High-stakes qualifications (GCSE/A-levels) will look to adopt adaptive digital testing within the next two decades, says Vincent, pointing to a Futures of Assessment research paper by the Digital Education Futures Initiative Cambridge that suggests computer-adaptive exams could become the gold standard for how to assess student capabilities by 2035.
