Indicators

 The indicator is a direct measure of the learning outcomes achieved in the two subject areas at the end of the relevant stages of education. The three measurement points will have their own established minimum standard. There is only one threshold that divides students into above and below minimum:   (a) Below minimum is the proportion or percentage of students who do not  achieve a minimum standard as set up by countries according to the globally-defined minimum  competencies.   (b) Above minimum is the proportion or percentage of students who have achieved the  minimum standards. Due to heterogeneity of performance levels set by national and cross-national assessments, these performance levels will have to be mapped to the globally-defined  minimum performance levels. Once the performance levels are mapped, the global education community will be able to identify for each country the proportion or percentage of children who achieved minimum standards.

 Percentage of children and young people in Grade 2 or 3 of primary education, at the end of primary education and the end of lower secondary education achieving at least a minimum proficiency level in (a)  reading and (b) mathematics. The mini mum proficiency level will be measured relative to new common reading and mathematics scales currently in development.

Age, Sex, Location (urban/rural), Socio economic status

 The indicator is calculated as the percentage of children and/or young people at the relevant stage of education achieving or exceeding a pre-defined proficiency level in a given subject.   Performance above the minimum level, PLtn,s,above minimum = p   where p is the percentage of students in a learning assessment at stage of education n, in subject s in any year (t-i) where 0 ? i ? 5, who has achieved the level of proficiency that is greater than a pre-defined  minimum standard, Smin. The minimum standard is defined by the global education community taking into consideration regional differences.

  While data from many national assessments are available now, every country sets its own standards so the performance levels might not be comparable. One option is to link existing regional assessments based on a common framework. Furthermore, assessments are typically administered within school  systems, the current indicators cover only those in school and the proportion of in-school target  populations might vary from country to country due to varied out-of-school children populations.    Assessing competencies of children and young people who are out of school would require household-based surveys. Assessing children in households is under consideration but may be very costly and difficult to administer and unlikely to be available on the scale needed within the next 3-5 years.    Finally, the calculation of this indicator requires specific information on the ages of children participating in assessments to create globally-comparable data. The ages of children reported by the head of the household might not be consistent and reliable so the calculation of the indicator may be even more challenging. Due to the complication in assessing out-of- school children and the main focus on improving education system, the UIS is taking a stepping stone approach. It will concentrate on assessing  children in school in the medium term, where much data are available, then develop more coherent implementation plan to assess out-of-school children in the longer term.