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Assessments for teaching excellence
CEM, the Centre for Evaluation and Monitoring at Durham University, produces assessments to meet the Curriculum for Excellence: Building the Curriculum 5. The CEM Assessment for Excellence systems are used by more than 50 per cent of local authorities across pre-school to secondary settings. In 2010/11 CEM assessed 40,767 children in primary schools and 17,500 students in secondary schools in Scotland. A total of 631 schools used the PIPS Baseline assessment alone.
The assessments compliment the professional judgements of teachers and the Curriculum for Excellence, allowing personalised development plans for students to be created.
Annette Bruton, Director of Education, Culture and Sports at Aberdeen City, said: "Tailored to the needs of our pupils, CEM assessments quickly and easily identify what pupils know and can do. Reliable, detailed feedback that informs personalised learning helps our teachers to plan and improve and strikes exactly the right chord with Curriculum for Excellence."
The success of the relationships formed is further highlighted by Ken Greer, Executive Director of Education for Fife Council. He said: "We don't want assessments that don't support learning. We want to promote improvements in learning, teaching and schools' performance.
"The assessments provided by CEM enable our schools to achieve this aim."
Feedback scores are UK and Scotland standardised allowing schools to see where their students are relative to students of the same age/school year.
CEM has been working with local authorities in Scotland for more than a decade. Systems have developed throughout Scottish education curriculum changes to cover monitoring, identification of strengths and development needs and assessment. Computer Adaptive Assessments such as InCAS, ePIPS, MidYIS, SOSCA and Yellis provide an opportunity for students to demonstrate their knowledge and ability in literacy and numeracy using ITC skills.