As part of Abu Dhabi Education Council’s (ADEC’s) plan to raise student achievement levels to international standards and to improve student attainment in Arabic language, 60 private schools from across the Emirate of Abu Dhabi will participate for the first time in the External Measurement of Student Achievement (EMSA) Arabic assessments. A Principals’ information workshop has been conducted to inform the 60 schools about the EMSA program.
EMSA is an annual assessment, administered to all students in ADEC public schools within the Emirate at the end of Trimester 2 in Grades 3 to 12.
The Arabic language assessments are based on the national curriculum standards followed by private schools in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, however the EMSA assessments focus on key reading and writing skills.
During the workshop, school principals from each of the 60 schools were briefed about the purpose, development and implementation of the EMSA Arabic Assessments. In efforts to ensure a smooth execution of the EMSA assessment program, each of the school principals has been asked to nominate one EMSA Coordinator, and an EMSA Test Administrator per class/section.
Each of the 60 schools has been selected to attend the EMSA Arabic Assessment Workshop due to the high percentage of Emirati and native Arabic speaking students in their school. Native Arabic speaking students from Grades 5, 7, 9 and 11 are all expected to participate in the study.
While the goal to deliver international standards in education are already supported by strong curriculum delivery and assessments, schools currently have few options in being able to benchmark student attainment in Arabic language.
For that reason, and in the interests of supporting efforts to improve Arabic standards, ADEC plans to conduct a study of student achievement in Arabic Reading and Arabic Writing on March 22nd 2015. The study, which will be conducted as part of ADEC’s annual EMSA assessment programme, will help identify strengths and weaknesses in the attainment of Arabic for native Arabic speakers.
In return for their participation, schools will receive feedback about the levels of achievement of their students in skills which are specific to Arabic Reading and Writing. Feedback will be presented in a variety of reports that can be used by teachers to enhance teaching and learning and school leaders in school improvement planning.
Each of the 60 private schools in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi will take part in this initiative in 2015, in addition to the 200 public schools that participate in EMSA each year.
– ADEC Press Release
