What should students be expected to know and do by the time they finish school? Since 2012, the Learning Metrics Task Force (LMTF), which was convened by UNESCO’s Institute for Statistics and the Center for Universal Education at the Brookings Institution, and consists of 30 member organizations, has set out to answer this question. The LMTF has focused attention on measuring the quality of students’ learning. This attention is especially relevant given the recent focus on quality and equity in the post-2015 global education agenda. In 2013, LMFT recommended seven “essential” domains of learning—essential in that they “prepare children and youth for their future lives and livelihoods.” The seven domains, and examples of subdomains within each, are shown in Table 1.

To map the landscape of national assessments and understand how the seven LMTF domains are reflected in the current priorities of national education systems, FHI 360’s Education Policy and Data Center (EPDC) launched the National Learning Assessment Mapping Project (NLAMP) in 2014 (see the related blog post and policy brief.) The most recent update of the project (NLAMP 2) includes more assessments and refines the mapping methodology, leading to a more comprehensive and representative database, as well as several changes in the findings.

Read the full blog.