Establishing a concordance between regional (ERCE/PASEC) and international (TIMSS/PIRLS) assessments

With less than ten years left to achieve the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) established in the Agenda 2030, our global leaders have declared a Decade of Action and delivery for sustainable de­velopment. The Decade of Action calls for accelerating sustainable solutions to all the world’s biggest challenges – ranging from poverty and gender to climate change, inequality and improving the quality of education for all. This document focuses on SDG 4, in particular Indicator 4.1.1. SDG 4 establishes that by 2030 we must “ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all”, and Indicator 4.1.1 operationalizes this goal as the demand to “ensure that all girls and boys complete free, equitable, and quality primary and secondary education leading to relevant and effective learning outcomes”. The international community agreed upon measuring the progress of this target as the percentage of children and youth achieving at least a minimal level of competency in literacy and nu­meracy at three points in the grade structure, and by sex: (a) in Grades 2/3; (b) at the end of primary; and (c) at the end of lower secondary.