Educational Evaluation and Assessment

The program Data-Driven Management of Educational Systems has been in existence since 2001, during which time it has trained more than 2000 students, many of whom now hold senior positions in regional, municipal, school, and university administrations. Since 2008, the program has received an additional specialization in the field of educational quality assessment and expertise.

The program trains specialists in the field of education management at the national, regional, and municipal levels, heads of universities, and schools who are able to identify systemic limitations in their organizations and project positive changes in them based on the analysis of expertise and evaluation data.

The main goal of the program is to teach education managers to select various procedures for evaluating the performance of their organization or system, conduct research, correctly interpret their data, and create their own system for evaluating the quality of education. During the training, students will learn the practice of managing change based on the tasks that their region or organization sets for them, as well as the problems that arise in their individual practice.

Since many system transformations involve the actions of an entire team, the program pays great attention to the development of leadership competencies, the ability to inspire and support teamwork, plan and implement projects, and evaluate the obtained results.

Our partners

Manchester. The program was developed by Russian specialists for the needs of the Russian educational system. But its peculiarity is that from the very start, this program was validated at the University of Manchester, one of the largest universities in the UK, consistently included in the top ten universities in the world. Recognizing that the quality of the courses developed meets the standards adopted in the UK, the University of Manchester has committed itself to monitor our educational process on an annual basis. Every year, British experts review our students ' essays and master's theses and confirm the grades given by Russian instructors. In addition, they meet with students and instructors, attend classes, and organize their own seminars and lectures at our request. British instructors and experts constantly participate in our conferences, we conduct joint research and projects, and our students are full participants in such events.

We fully follow the principles of evaluating the quality of our students ' education adopted in Manchester and other universities in the UK – students always know in advance the criteria by which their work is evaluated and receive written advice on how to improve their results.

We cooperate with many educational organizations around the world. For example, for many years our faculty has been a partner of the network of centers for the study of educational policy, which unites the countries of Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia. Therefore, our students and graduates have the opportunity to participate in projects of this network.

Much attention is paid to the study of the structure of educational systems in other countries, the factors that previously influenced and currently affect the formation of educational policy, and the experience of developing systemic reforms.

We have many partners in Russia – these are the country's leading universities, primarily the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration, with which we have a long history of cooperation, as well as the HSE, Moscow Municipal Pedagogical University and the administration and universities of several regions of Russia, the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous district, the Krasnoyarsk territory, Yaroslavl and Samara regions.

The key skill that students receive is the ability to choose and use a variety of ways and approaches to assess the quality of educational systems, and to inform all interested parties about the results obtained, giving them a detailed interpretation

It will be especially useful for heads of regional and municipal education systems to get acquainted with how the educational systems of other countries are organized and what forms of assessment of the quality of education exist in them, to study in more detail the data of international comparative studies and factors that affect the success or failure of a particular system.

It is important for them and for our other large group of students – heads of educational institutions, head instructors, and school principals – to understand what causes inequality in education and how it can be prevented or reduced. It will be useful for them not only to get acquainted with new practices, such as the in-school system of professional development or inclusive education but also to implement these areas in their organizations. In the near future, we plan to organize an internship program for those of our students who would like not only to get acquainted with the experience of colleagues, but also to learn new assessment methods, new forms of programs, and project management.

Employees of universities and Institute of Further Educators' Training can get experience in interactive methods of teaching courses that have not yet been sufficiently represented in their programs – it is not for nothing that there are so many graduates of our faculty among our instructors and among the instructors of our partner universities.

The program will be extremely useful for entrepreneurs in the field of education-creators of private schools and professional colleges, new educational programs and courses, authors of public education initiatives. We are proud that our program is taught by the organizers of the all-Russian public program "Teacher for Russia", whose graduates become catalysts for progressive changes in remote and disadvantaged schools, and head instructors and principals of secondary schools, who have already taken responsibility for developing students' educational skills of the XXI century and improving the teaching of STEM subjects.

How is the training arranged?

The duration of training in the program is 2 years: five face-to-face sessions of 2 weeks and remote support in the intervals between sessions.
The teaching is conducted in Russian, and the classes conducted by our foreign colleagues are accompanied by a translation.
The main training program consists of 4 compulsory and 8 elective courses, from which the student must choose 4 more.
During the training, students are engaged in real research and projects.
Individual research during the main training program forms the basis for real changes in the place of work of the program participants.

In addition to studying courses, students will take part in a business game that will help them build an individual educational route within the program, take part in two international educational conferences, as well as in the examination of the work of an educational institution.

Simultaneously with classes in the main training program, students can attend classes in other programs and faculties of Shaninka that will be useful to them in their research or practical work. For example, these can be classes of the faculty of psychology or sociology, courses of the program of our faculty "management of preschool education development".
How are the results evaluated?
At the end of each course, the student prepares a written research paper (essay), and at the end of the entire training – a master's thesis.

Students are introduced to the criteria for evaluating their essays in advance. Each work is reviewed by two instructors, who give a detailed explanation of their grades and advice on how to improve the work. Then the papers are sent for additional evaluation to an external examiner appointed by the University of Manchester, who may or may not confirm the Russian examiners' assessment.

Courses selected for free admission in other faculties and programs are not evaluated.

Who teaches the program?

Our School has the opportunity to attract the brightest and most interesting instructors from both Russian universities and institutions, and from abroad, and we strive to invite those who have already proven themselves by implementing promising changes and innovations in the education system. If for some reason we can't invite a bright specialist as a permanent instructor, we invite them to give guest lectures and conduct training.

Teachers and guests of the program is current and former heads of major regional educational systems, whose experience has largely developed the modern Russian practice of change management in education, and experts in the field of international comparative studies like PISA: