Position: Consultant -Assessment Advisory for SAFAL

Location: Delhi

Founded in 2012, Central Square Foundation is a non-profit philanthropic foundation

working with the vision of ensuring quality school education for all children in India. We are

driven by our mission to transform the school education system with a focus on improving

the learning outcomes of children, especially from low-income communities.

We believe that effective foundational learning is essential for better learning outcomes for

all children in school. Development of foundational literacy and numeracy skills by Class 3

can help children progress to higher levels of learning which is an essential building block

for creating equal access to opportunities needed for leading a better life.

In order to achieve this, we partner with individuals and social impact organizations to bring

innovative solutions in education, as well as work with the government to drive systemic

impact. We also collaborate with the ecosystem to leverage knowledge and create proven

tools around critical issues such as early learning, technology in education, classroom

instruction methods and governance.

CSF’s team members bring a deep sense of commitment and passion towards our collective

vision that every child deserves quality education. We strive for excellence in everything we

do and collaborate to create an impact as we move closer to achieving our mission. We

encourage an entrepreneurial outlook that evokes new and bold ideas along with taking

smart risks. CSF provides a dynamic, learning and positive environment that is driven by our

strong sense of values.

About SAFAL

CSF has been working with the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) to support

design and development of SAFAL (Structured Assessment For Analysing Learning), a

competency-based , diagnostic assessment for grades 3, 5, and 8. This is in line with

recommendations made by the NEP- 2020 for a school based examination to be conducted

in Grades 3, 5, and 8 to test achievement of basic learning outcomes, through assessment of

core concepts & competencies along with relevant higher-order skills and application of

knowledge in real-life situations, rather than rote memorization.

SAFAL, as a diagnostic, census-based assessment, will measure the achievement levels of

students across grades 3, 5 and 8 across the core competencies in curricular areas of

Language and Mathematics. It has been designed to provide developmental feedback to

schools and teachers to improve teaching-learning without additional examination pressure

on students. It has been designed to help students, parents, and teachers to track learning

progress throughout the school years and not just in Grades 10 and 12.

The key objectives and purpose of SAFAL are-

• Nudge system towards competency based learning : SAFAL will establish a formal

protocol to collect valid and reliable data to chart students’ performance on

competencies at and below the grade level and monitor progress.

• Measure school performance on key competencies : SAFAL will provide rich and

reliable data on a school’s achievement across critical outcomes, which will be used

to measure system’s effectiveness through monitoring and reporting of students’

learning levels.

• Identify areas of academic intervention: School managements and school systems

(e.Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan, Navodaya Vidyalaya Samiti, State Government

running CBSE schools, etc.) can use data from SAFAL for targeting academic support

and data-based management.

• Provide remediation and support : SAFAL will provide teachers information on

student’s achievement levels, allow them to reflect on their instructional practices

and identify how to support learning needs of students.

SAFAL will provide a reliable and comparable ‘absolute’ metric for parents, schools and state

officials to assess school performance on core concepts. It is to be noted that SAFAL will not

decide to pass or fail at any stage. Rather it will be used for developmental purposes as

envisaged in NEP 2020.

Position Summary

CSF has partnered with CBSE to provide technical support in student assessment and

measurement – for design, implementation, data analysis and overall quality assurance of

SAFAL for 2021-22.

The position on Assessment Advisory is a 4-5 month consulting assignment with CSF

during which the consultant will be expected to provide technical support on assessment

design and delivery for SAFAL.

This position requires specialized practical knowledge of all parts of the assessment cycle,

including technical standards, assessment framework, cognitive tests in literacy, numeracy,

and other domains, scoring, scaling and analysis and reporting. It requires strong knowledge

in psychometric techniques—including classical test theory, item response theory, test

equating, scaling, and linking.

Key responsibilities & Deliverables

1. Provide technical support in conducting the field trials for initial item pool and

contextual questionaries, and analysing assessment data from trials for finalising the

instruments using IRT and Rasch methods

1. Field trial plan and specifications

2. Field trial reports , process documentation

3. Item analysis report

4. Finalised instruments

2. Lead psychometric related activities- including, but not limited to, sampling design,

DIF analysis, item calibration, linking, scaling, and equating with 1PL,2PL and partial

credit models, and standard setting analyses

1. Sampling frames and technical documentation

2. Scales constructed for domains tested under SAFAL -grades 5 and 8

3. Technical documentation for scaling methodology

3. Carry out the analyses on student achievement data and prepare different kinds of

reports for SAFAL , with assistance from the team

1. Data analysis plan

2. Technical Report

3. Thematic Reports, Summary reports -targeted to stakeholders

4. Briefings for Media releases, websites etc.

4. Provide support for developing training materials for dissemination workshops (post

assessment) to be organized with key stakeholders

1. Data dissemination plan

2. Workshop materials for dissemination of results

Required Qualifications, Experience, Skills

• Master’s or equivalent degree, with specialization in Education, Student Assessment

& Measurement, Data

• At least 5 years of experience working with large-scale assessment programs over a

sustained time period-demonstrated experience in planning, monitoring, reviewing,

evaluating and reporting on complex educational measurement projects.

• High level of understanding of contemporary issues in the assessment, measurement

and reporting of student performance, particularly in relation to literacy and

numeracy curriculum areas.

• Handling large-scale applications (data sets, programs, and/or applications) of

similar complexity, ideally with government institution (State/Central). Experience

with formal assessment processes is required.

• Experience in developing high-quality item banks, test instruments
• Familiarity with CTT and IRT methodologies and tools (such as STATA, R, CONQUEST,

SPSS, etc.) for item/data analysis; developing reporting templates and generate data

summaries for large data sets

• Fluency in English and Hindi

Desired Qualities:
Bias towards action and agility in operating style

Excellent oral and written skills

High level of integrity and strong work ethic

Self-driven and ability to work independently

Strong problem-solving ability and prioritization skills

Thrive in a fast-paced, entrepreneurial environment

Demonstrate initiative and motivate others

Remuneration will be competitive with Indian philanthropy pay scales and will depend upon

the candidate’s experience levels.

Apply

Interested candidates can share their CVs with [email protected] with

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