AEA-Europe believes that there should be a way to compare the quality standards that professionals in educational assessment work towards across Europe. A first draft of a document which addresses this issue, The European Framework of Standards for Educational Assessment, is therefore now under discussion.

The Framework is the result of a process that started a few years ago when AEA Europe members discussed the issue of quality standards during their annual conference. A Standards Committee was formed to come up with suggestions about if and how AEA Europe could play a role. In the 2009 conference this committee introduced the idea of producing a framework of European standards. After that, a position paper was written and discussed during the annual conference in Oslo, November 2010. Based on the feedback from that discussion, plus the other feedback received, the first draft of the Framework has been developed and the Association’s Council has adopted this as version 1.0.

The Framework is intended to be an instrument that test providers, score users and (educational) authorities can use to compare, contrast and evaluate practices in the development, administration, scoring and reporting of a wide variety of tests, assessments and assessment programs. It is first and foremost a tool that will facilitate transparency for providers, users and (educational) authorities. It will support the reviewing and presentation of evidence that the assessment methods being used meet certain quality criteria.

The development of this Framework is another step in realizing the long-term objective of the AEA-E Council:  to position the Association as an expert organization that can facilitate and set up peer review and audit procedures to foster the quality of educational assessment across Europe.

The latest version of the Framework is now available on this website, Click here. All members are encouraged to review the document, and if you have comments and improvements to suggest please get in touch directly with the Framework drafting committee members:

Gerben van Lent  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. 


Andrew Watts  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. 


Saskia Wools  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.