Exams expert Professor Jo-Anne Baird has been selected to be part of a new curriculum and assessment review led by the Government’s Department for Education.
Professor Baird is the Director of the Oxford University Centre for Educational Assessment and her research focuses on system-wide structures and processes, examination standards, marking and assessment design.
The 12-member independent panel will review the existing national curriculum and statutory assessment system in England, to ensure they are fit for purpose and meeting the needs of children and young people. The panel will be led by Professor Becky Francis, Chief Executive of the Education Endowment Foundation.
Professor Baird said: “I am delighted to be working with Becky Francis and this excellent group of colleagues on a review of curriculum and assessment in England spanning the school years.”
To mark A-level results day tomorrow, the Department of Education has released a podcast which explores the assessment system and A-Level grading.
The podcast, which is part of a series by the Oxford Education Deanery, features Associate Professor of Educational Assessment Michelle Meadows, who is now an academic at the Department and previously was Deputy Chief Regulator at Ofqual, and Religious Studies teacher, Jonny Tridgell.
Senior Departmental Lecturer, Hamish Chalmers, who is co-Director of the Oxford Education Deanery is interviewing.
Hamish said: “A-level results day is a hugely impactful day in the life of anyone who is hoping to go to university. I remember the day well myself – collecting the manila envelope and then walking around the city centre for a couple of hours plucking up the courage to open it.
“In this podcast we explore some of the burning questions around A-level assessment – are grade boundaries for different subjects set differently? If I have an identified educational need is this taken into account? How are grade boundaries achieved?
“We wanted to explore some of these questions and demystify some of the unknowns for people. Jonny gives us an on-the-ground perspective of what it’s like to be a teacher, supporting students through achieving qualifications. Michelle explains to us how the process works behind the scenes and the mechanisms for assessment.
“Hopefully the podcast can give clarity to teachers, parents and students and, of course, we wish students the very best of luck with their A-level results.”
The Oxford Education Deanery is based at the Department of Education and empowers educators worldwide to understand, use, and co-produce high-quality research evidence in education.
They offer training top-ups, a range of short courses, and events for professionals and educators looking to engage with Oxford’s world-leading research, and each other.
Find out more about the Oxford Education Deanery on the Department’s website: Oxford Education Deanery – Department of Education
To listen to this podcast, and any from the Deanery Digest series, go to the University of Oxford’s podcast page: Deanery Digests | University of Oxford Podcasts
Or listen to more from the Department of Education: https://podcasts.ox.ac.uk/units/department-education
Pearson will implement the study in nearly 450 schools, partnering with the Department’s Oxford University Centre for Educational Assessment (OUCEA) in England and Northern Ireland for data analysis and reporting.
Pearson has been appointed as the National Centre to conduct the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) 2026 in England, Northern Ireland and Scotland.
Contracts were awarded to Pearson by England’s Department for Education, the Scottish Government, and the Department for Education Northern Ireland following a competitive tendering process.
In total, around 60 countries and economies are expected to participate in PIRLS 2026, which is conducted by the International Association for the Evaluation of Education Achievement (IEA) and provides high-quality data for monitoring progress in students’ reading achievement of pupils aged 9 to 10 years old around the world.
Pearson will operate as the National Centre for PIRLS 2026. It will be responsible for the delivery of the study in approximately 150 schools in each of England, Northern Ireland and Scotland with Associate Professor Grace Grima, Director of International Assessments at Pearson, as National Research Co-Ordinator.
For England and Northern Ireland, the Oxford University Centre for Educational Assessment (OUCEA), which is based at the University of Oxford’s Department of Education, will be responsible for the data analysis, writing of the national reports and the dissemination of the PIRLS 2026 results, under the leadership of Associate Professor Ariel Lindorff.
Associate Professor Ariel Lindorff, OUCEA, said: “We are very pleased to have this opportunity to build on past successes working with Pearson on PIRLS in England as well as to conduct the analysis and reporting for PIRLS in Northern Ireland for the first time.
“I am confident that our research team’s expertise in analysing and interpreting PIRLS data, as well as in relevant policy in England and Northern Ireland, will be an asset in the 2026 cycle of PIRLS.”
Pearson has substantial expertise in international contracts, having already delivered two cycles of PIRLS in England: PIRLS 2016 and PIRLS 2021 as well as Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 2019 and 2023. Pearson has also delivered the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2022 in England, Wales and Northern Ireland,
Associate Professor Grace Grima, Director of International Assessments at Pearson, said: “Pearson is delighted to once again be awarded the PIRLS contract for England, as well as for Northern Ireland and Scotland for the first time.
“We look forward to bringing our expertise in online delivery, as well as our strong links with schools, for this important study which provides a rich insight into reading achievements of children around the world.”
Data collection for PIRLS 2026 will run through May-June 2026 with the results released in December 2027.
A new video series from the Oxford University Centre for Educational Assessment (OUCEA) outlines key messages in assessment and provides top tips for education practitioners.
In the first film, ‘Understanding Formative Assessment & Giving Good Feedback’, Professor Gordon Stobart (UCL), Associate Professor Victoria Elliott (Oxford University), Daisy Christodoulou (No More Marking), and Natalie Usher (Oxford University) discuss the importance of formative assessment and how to give students good feedback.
In the second film, ‘Understanding marking and mark schemes’, Associate Professor Michelle Meadows (Oxford University), Dr Ed Wolfe (Pearson) and Anne Pinot de Moira (Consultant) discuss the importance of marking reliability, problems in producing it and ways of making assessment more reliable, including through good mark scheme design.
Visit the OUCEA website to see all the episodes as they become available.
The video series was funded by Oxford University’s Teaching Development and Enhancement fund.
Three bitesize podcasts explaining key issues in standard setting have been released today by the Oxford University Centre for Educational Assessment.
The podcasts give an accessible explanation to teachers, students and everyone interested the different approaches to standard setting in qualifications like GCSEs.
Principal Investigators Dr Michelle Meadows and Professor Jo-Anne Baird said: “Public discussions on standards are often frustrating for all sides because there are different understandings of how things are done. We hope these podcasts bridge the communications gap between the public and assessment industry insiders on how standards are set.”
The first podcast explains the pros and cons of criterion-referencing, the second debunks the myth that GCSEs are norm-referenced and explains how standards are really set, and the third explains why GCSE grade boundaries change from one examination series to the next.
The podcasts are available in English and Welsh (Cymraeg), and the research was funded by Qualification Wales.
View the podcasts on the OUCEA website.
Professor Jo-Anne Baird, from the Department, has been appointed to an expert group on funding for educational research by the British Educational Research Association (BERA). The group, which is led by David James (Cardiff University and Chair of the REF 2021 panel) and working with the Academy of Social Sciences, will investigate and report on funding trends and their implications for the sector and key funders.
Jo-Anne, who is Director of the Oxford University Centre for Educational Assessment (OUCEA) said: “The Expert Group is convened to extend the work of the BERA The State of the Discipline project, to look specifically at the monies invested in educational research relative to UK expenditure on education. This is the first such BERA Expert Group that I have worked with and I am looking forward to analysing the data from HESA and REF sources.
“It is an important topic that I feel strongly about, as education is seen as crucial to society, yet funding for research is not prioritised by many bodies. We will be seeking to engage with key education funders about the outcomes of the work and, ultimately, to influence the level of funding for education research.”
Anil Kanjee is a Research Professor at the Tshwane University of Technology whose work focuses on addressing the challenge of equity and quality in education. He is the head of the Assessment and Learning Research Programme within the Faulty of Humanities, and coordinator of the Postgraduate Programme in the Department of Primary Education. He also serves as a Research Fellow at the Oxford University Centre for Educational Assessment, and at the Centre for International Teacher Education (Cape Peninsula University of Technology).
Currently he is supporting the Education Department and Teacher Unions to implement the national Assessment for Learning Pedagogical Strategy in South African schools. Previously, he was an Executive Director at the Human Sciences Research Council, where he headed the Centre for Education Quality Improvement. He has served as a technical advisor to education ministries in Africa and Asia, UNICEF, UNESCO, the United National Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees, as well as to the Department of Basic Education, JET Education Services, UMALUSI and the National Educational Collaborative Trust
His areas of research focuses on:
- Enhancing the use of classroom and large-scale assessments to improve learning for ALL.
- Learner rights, learner voice and learning across schools in different poverty quintiles.
- Developing models of teacher professional development to address equity gaps in schools.
- Monitoring and evaluation of education systems, programmes and projects.
- Application of Item response theory for enhancing the reporting of assessment results.