USETI Legacy Alliance - Q1 Report _Jan-March 2010_

Agency for International Development. The agreement aimed to build a sustainable, strengthened Ukrainian Center for Educational Quality Assessment capable of independently and transparently developing and implementing secure tests that meet international standards. The initiative began on January 1, 2010, and concluded on December 31, 2012. American Councils, in cooperation with American Institutes for Research, served as the Cooperating Partner, together with USAID and 13 other founding partners. The agreement built on the accomplishments of previous assistance to achieve several objectives, including securing a legislative basis for testing and higher education admission, institutionalizing a partnership between business, higher education, and policymakers, and transforming public support for testing into a proactive, contemporary, public expectation. During the first quarter of 2010, American Councils received pre-award authorization to carry out various activities, including providing technical assistance to the Ukrainian Center for Educational Quality Assessment (UCEQA) to develop training materials for exam markers, preparing a roundtable with Ukrainian employers to discuss testing and related reforms, and developing a project website. The activities were carried out under the authorization cited above. A working meeting with key external testing stakeholders was arranged on February 19, 2010, to discuss the political transition and plan for contingency scenarios. The meeting participants agreed to undertake activities in cooperation with one another to minimize possible negative consequences should external testing be abolished. As a result of the meeting, several decisions were made, including financing national polling on external testing, supporting an informational campaign supporting the external testing, and completing research correlating the 2009 external testing results to the results of freshmen mid-year examination. Technical assistance was delivered to UCEQA to develop training materials for exam markers and to support the construction of a new ability-based standardized test. A correlation analysis of the 2009 SET results with first-year achievement was presented at a press conference on March 18, 2010. The analysis linked the results of the 2009 external exam to first-year student academic achievement as measured by their mid-year examinations. The study found that the standardized, external testing-based admission system was both efficient and fair. The study also found that external testing effectiveness was high, with a correlation coefficient of 0.522 between the average external testing score and the student's grade point average from the winter and summer semesters of 2008-2009. The efficiency of the system differed by departments, with the highest correlation found in law and jurisprudence. The study also found that adding the secondary school grade point average and giving it equal weight as the external testing score improved the correlation. The USETI Legacy Alliance was closely involved in the development of the "Konkurs" Admissions Management System, which was used during the 2010 admissions campaign. A schedule for the work of "Konkurs" in 2010 was developed in cooperation with the Higher Education Department at MOES. The procedures for UCEQA certificate verification were developed and approved in cooperation with UCEQA. The alliance also participated in a meeting with representatives of 356 HEI who will be responsible for the work of "Konkurs" in 2010. A campaign in support of testing materialized in January 2010 and brought together various institutions. It was formed in response to the Program of the Candidate of the President of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych, which contained the eventual abolishment of the external testing and reinstatement of internal HEI exams as an element of HEI admissions. The campaign aimed to promote public support for testing and to counter the potential abolishment of external testing.