Assessment Specialist (Early Grades) – Education Pathways to Peace

Assessment Specialist (Early Grades) – Education Pathways to Peace

Company Overview:

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Project Overview and Role:

About the Education Pathways to Peace
in Mindanao (Pathways) Program
Education
Pathways to Peace in Mindanao (Pathways) is a Philippines-Australia partnership
supporting quality inclusive kindergarten to grade 3 education for all children
in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM). 

The program
focuses on early years education as the foundation for life-long learning and
development. By engaging and collaborating with a wide range of education
stakeholders, promoting peace in education reform, and addressing inequity and
disparity in education delivery, the program also contributes to peacebuilding
in the region. 

Delivered
through the Bangsamoro Ministry of Basic, Higher and Technical Education
(MBHTE), activities are directed towards strengthening education policies and
institutions, ensuring accessible and inclusive education for all children,
providing an integrated education system and curriculum, and improving teacher
quality and development. 

Pathways is
implemented by Palladium in consortium with the Australian Council for
Educational Research (ACER) and Orient Integrated Development Consultants Inc
(OIDCI). The program’s
base of operations is in Cotabato City and covers all five provinces of BARMM.

About the position  
As part of the Pathways Annual Workplan 5,
and in support to the Ministry of Basic, Higher and Technical Education (MBHTE)
strengthen its assessment system for K-3 learners during the COVID19 pandemic,
the overall objective of the assignment is to conduct a thorough review and
mapping of the current assessment system for K-3 learners in varied learning
modalities in the context of COVID19 pandemic and support the MBHTE design
a multi-level assessment necessary to assess critical foundational skills on
literacy, numeracy, and socio-emotional skills of K-3 learners that is aligned with the Most Essential Learning
Competencies (MELC).

The post is expected to support the MBHTE
particularly the Basic Education and Madaris Education sub-sectors develop,
test out and finalize the assessment tools and processes essential for the
design of procedures, guidelines and tools to ensure a robust
K-3 learning assessment system is established to support the MBHTE’s Learning Continuity Plan. The assessment system for the MBHTE is envisioned to serve
accountability purposes while also keeping track and monitoring K-3 learners’
progress to provide useful and usable information for program improvements,
policy development, and strengthening K-3 learners’ instruction. 

Child Protection: Level 2
The responsibilities of the consultant/s may involve direct contact and working with children or young
people.

Primary Duties and Responsibilities: 

The key responsibilities of the position include, but are not limited to:

1. Assist the Pathways Curriculum Learning and Delivery Adviser, and other early grade consultants review and enhance the K-3 instructional scope and sequence, and substantiate the assessment section under literacy, numeracy, socio-emotional learning and peace education; 
2. Work with the Basic Education and Madaris Education sub-sectors and its relevant technical working groups (TWGs) to map out and analyze current assessment systems and practices, including analysis of gaps, challenges, best practices and opportunities on assessments for K-3 to include the Adaptive Learning Modality (ALM) for K-12 in the Bangsamoro; 
3. Anchored on the mapping results, propose recommendations and outline interventions for K-3 and ALM-specific that will include, but not limited to the following: a.) approach to learning and assessment practices; b.) standardized assessment whether district, division or region; c.) systematic use of assessment data; d.) communication of assessment results that are clear, understandable and useful to parents, community members, education stakeholders, internal and external to the MBHTE; 
4. Support the MBHTE to adapt, develop and create tools including two user-friendly handbook that will serve as reference for teachers, parents/community members, and other stakeholders in assessing K-3 learners and ALM for K-12 in the Bangsamoro. The handbook should contain – a.) a set of clear guidelines for using the developed tools; b.) a set of methods and practices that the abovementioned can use to achieve the sought-after results and measure the progress of K-3 and K-12 learners in the context of ALM; c.) case studies that can be used as a point of reference or examples for the similar cases they deal with; 
5. Develop the training plan, modules and session guides and work with the MBHTE at the regional, division, district and school levels to test out and model the improved assessment systems for K-3 and K-12 in the context of ALM in selected schools across the BARRM using varied modalities, but not limited to paper based, digital and blended; 
6. Provide regular updates and reports through the monthly contract management mechanisms organized by Pathways program and the MBHTE;

Duration : 6 months

Major outputs from these responsibilities include the milestones indicated below with accompanying payments: 

Required Qualifications:

The Assessment Specialist (Early Grades) may bring
his/her own team composed of experts who can assist in undertaking the
responsibilities and achieving the outputs. A majority of the team must be
familiar with the BARMM, and are residents of BARMM or its surrounding regions.

The Assessment Specialist (Early Grades) will serve
as the Lead and should possess the following qualifications, experience, skills
and competencies:

• Qualifications in education, social sciences, public policy, economics or related field is desirable; 
• Professional experience working on basic education; preferably in early grades, with specific reference to research, policy, and implementation of programs to support student assessment and or improve student learning outcomes; 
• Excellent research, writing, and communication skills in English; 
• Ability to meet deadlines, deliver high quality work and flexibility to adapt to changing context; 
• Effective time management and organizational skills; 
• Knowledge and experience with the Pathways program and MBHTE will be considered an asset.

The team must submit a technical and financial (fully costed) proposal that presents the conceptual framework and approach for undertaking this TA, including a workplan with M&E and risk management components. The technical proposal must not exceed 25 pages inclusive of annexures. The fully costed financial proposal must provide assumptions for costing.  Deadline for submission is 28 November 2021.