International Assessments

The International Association for Educational Assessment (IAEA) was conceived as an international association of measurement agencies in 1974 at a meeting at Educational Testing Service (ETS) in Princeton, New Jersey. Later that same year a preparing committee, representing various geographic regions, met at CITO, the Institute for Educational Measurement in the Netherlands, to formulate the plans for the association.

In 1976 the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) admitted IAEA to C (information sharing) status as a nongovernmental organization (NGO). In 1981 UNESCO admitted IAEA to B (consultative) status.

Purpose and Objectives

The broad purpose of IAEA is to assist educational agencies in the development and appropriate application of educational assessment techniques to improve the quality of education. IAEA's main objectives are to:

• improve communication among organizations interested in educational assessment through the sharing of professional expertise, conferences, and publications, while providing a framework that includes cooperative research, training, and projects involving educational assessment;
• make expertise in assessment techniques readily available for the solution of problems in the field of educational evaluation;
• cooperate with other organizations and agencies having complementary interests;
• engage in other activities leading to the improvement of assessment techniques and their appropriate use by educational agencies throughout the world.

Membership

IAEA has mainly three groups of membership: primary organizations, affiliate organizations, and individuals. Primary organization members are not-for-profit organizations, often associated in one way or another with ministries of education, which have educational assessment as their primary function. Affiliate organizations are those that make a major use of educational assessment techniques, or financial agencies that devote a large part of their budgets to work involving educational assessment. Individual members are those with a professional interest in assessment who may not be associated with an organization that has educational assessment as a primary concern. An executive committee whose officers and members are elected by the primary organization members governs IAEA. A subscription to the journal Assessment in Education: Principles, Policy and Practice is included with membership.

Activities and Projects

IAEA organizes annual conferences on assessment themes of international significance. Rotated on a geographic basis, a primary organization member in a region assumes responsibility for organizing the conference. IAEA has focused on topics such as standard setting, school-based assessment, public examinations, and admission to higher education.

In cooperation with UNESCO, IAEA organizes roundtables on the impact of assessment on education. The roundtables bring experts from designated geographic areas together to share information about topics of mutual interest, such as "The Impact of Evaluation and Assessment on Educational Policy," "The Impact of Examination Systems on Curriculum Development," and "International Comparisons of Student Achievements." Since its inception IAEA has conducted through its members a number of projects for UNESCO and the World Bank.

The executive Secretaryship of IAEA is located at CITO, The Netherlands.