The need to increase Russian participation in international projects of scientific-educational cooperation is caused by received results that demonstrate projects of the intercountry cooperation in solving socio-economic tasks in Russia.
The sequential work under a multi-year agenda aimed at expanding international cooperation in the sphere of development cooperation, promotes the role of Russian experts and Russian technologies in the field of global education, makes Russian expertise in demand in new markets consulting services, strengthens the authority of Russian expertise abroad. Of course, these results are reflected in the solving of socially-economic problems within the country.
Thus, in particular, cooperation in the framework of the Russia Education Aid for Development program (READ) to improve the quality of basic education gave the opportunity to ensure the growth of the Russian expertise in the field of education quality assessment, education policy and education management.
During the duration of the program (since 2008) more than 340 Russian experts were trained in the international master programmes developed in collaboration with the University of Manchester and the Massachusetts University. Such long-term educational programs developed with the assistance of international experts in the framework of the READ and obtained international accreditation, continue to operate and attract Russian and foreign professionals in the field of education, being in turn the only Russian educational programs in the field of education quality assessment at this level.
Also in the frames of READ program, Russian experts developed unique tools to assess the quality of education: monitoring of assessment of educational and subject competences SAM and IT literacy Test (ICT). A team of specialists that included a recognised high-level experts, carried out step-by-step examination of the developments, which has provided Russian tool with passing of the international accreditation and validation. During the development, the tools have been tested not only in schools of the Russian Federation, but also in the CIS countries (Kazakhstan, Armenia, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan), UK, USA, Thailand etc.
This experience is unique because in addition to the direct results of the emergence of the first national assessment tools for assessment of quality of education, recognised at the global level – provides the spread of Russian innovations in both – Russia and abroad.
In addition, Russian developments have received experimental sites in other countries. The participation of experts from neighboring countries, in particular partners in the CIS (Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan) in joint projects helped to improve the quality and reliability of the developed tools, to ensure the implementation of practical steps in the field of inter-country cooperation.
A significant role is played by the Eurasian Association of Education Quality Assessment (EAOKO), bringing together representatives of state education agencies, centers for quality evaluation, higher education institutions and all those concerned about the problems of education quality assessment (more than 100 organizations and individual members from Russia and CIS countries). Under the auspices of EAOKO there is a number of innovative projects are being implemented in Russia and abroad.
All this allows to use the accumulated experience of international cooperation and inter-country cooperation for development of the most effective approaches to the evaluation of education quality in Russia, using the most modern monitoring methods in Russian schools, to improve the skills of teachers and employees of education authorities in the country. In the end, the Russian education system receives powerful innovation and technological inflow that contributes to improving the quality of Russian education.