The X international conference of READ Program, which was held on November 5-6 in Moscow, opened with reports by Elena Kardanova and Elena Lenskaya on the development and prospects of MA and PhD programs created and implemented with the support of READ.
During the presentation, E. Kardanova, head of the program for psychometric research and education quality assessment at the HSE Institute of Education, spoke about the history, development and achievements of the project over the past 10 years. Launched in 2010 with the support of READ1, the master’s program “Measurements in Psychology and Education” aimed to prepare a new generation of psychometrics specialists and still remains the only training course in this field in the post-Soviet countries, highly demanded by applicants. A distinctive feature of the program is its principle “researchers train researchers”, all teachers and students participate in research activities. The range and structure of training modules are constantly changing as psychometrics and opportunities for learning develope and at the moment students can choose a specialization: measurements in psychology or education.
The grant received in frames of READ2 program in 2017, allowed not only take the master’s program to a new level, but also launch the PhD program. Nevertheless, there are challenges that still have to be dealt with, for example, the novelty of the profession and thus low awareness of applicants about it, different students’ background and level of training. Also, career expectations often vary, despite the fact that most graduates are willing to work in commercial organizations, and not in the field of science or public service.
Among the achievements over the past 10 years, Elena emphasized the nascence of a new generation of psychometrics specialists; students’ victories in international contests, their scholarships and research grants; a high (83%) employment rate on specialty and extremely high demand for graduates, as well as the recent opportunity for them to get academic degrees.
The master’s program, presented by Elena Lenskaya, dean of the faculty “Management in the field of education” of the Moscow School of Social and Economic Sciences, in turn, is practically oriented and focused, first of all, on training specialists in the field of education management. The program consists of 4 modules: “Educational policy and quality assessment”, “Management of educational systems”, “Fundamentals of educational measurements” and “Methodology of social research” providing comprehensive training for future managers. The target audience of the program is people, experienced at managing educational systems – from region to college level and wishing to improve themselves in education quality assessment. Since 2011, 193 people have become MA graduates, and the vast majority of them work in the regions of the Russian Federation and CIS countries. 82% of alumni were promoted after graduation, 27 people are heads of centers for education quality assessment around the world.
In the final part of the report, Elena spoke about the prospects for the development of MSSES educational programs. The plans include the development of a training module for assessing the quality of preschool education in addition to the existing leadership program in this area. In addition, preparations are underway for the release of new online training courses, in particular the “Soft Skills Assessment” package.
