Developing a model for certifying external assessors in educational quality assessment of basic education

Abstract

An external assessment is an assessment of educational quality and standards of an educational institution. The external assessors must have been certified by The Office of Educational Standards Certification and Quality Assessment. However, the certifying process has not yet had a variety of models. This study aimed to develop a model for certifying external assessors in educational quality assessment of basic education and to assess that model.  The study procedure used the process of research and development by collecting data from related literature and by asking for opinions of 23 experts, obtained using the purposive sampling technique. The delphi technique was applied to analyze for 3 rounds. Congruent opinions of the group of experts were used to construct a model for certifying external assessors in quality assessment of basic education. The model from this study was then assessed by 5 qualified persons. The statistics used in the study were percentage, mean, standard deviation, interquartile ranges and median.  The results of the study revealed that the developed model, called ASCQ Model, consisted of these 4 stages: application (A), selection (S), certification (C), and quality control (Q). All the 4 stages comprised 5 major components, 11 minor components, 39 sub – components and 50 indicators. At the application stage, applicants for being selected to be external assessors had to have qualifications according to the major component 1 with general qualification of external assessors comprising these 8 indicators : 30 and more years of age, holding a bachelor's degree and higher in education/teacher education, Thai nationality, good health without any obstacles to assessment, having never been disciplinarily punished or never been imprisoned by the final sentence to be imprisonment except the punishment for the guilty made due to carelessness or minor punishment; in case of being government official, applicants had to be permitted by their superior or the attached agency to be able to conduct external quality assessment; having acceptable experiences in teaching-learning performance, educational administration or supervision at the assessment level for no less than 5 years, and having never been withdrawn of the license in teaching profession or educational administrator or external assessment.  At the selection stage, an appropriate method of selection had to be used in order to obtain external assessors with suitable qualification as needed. The selection stage consisted of the major component 2. Specific qualification of external assessors comprised these 3 minor components; knowledge, skills, and characteristics, all with 39 indicators; for the major component 3, the method of selecting external assessors had 6 sub – components: selections by training, comparing educational qualifications, comparing experiences in assessment, considering from competency of assessors, and integrated selection. The certification stage consisted of the major component 4. The certification of external assessors had 5 minor components: criteria for certifying external assessors, levels of certifying of external assessors, lengths of time of certifying assessors, and attached assessment agencies of external assessors, and termination of external assessors, all with 16 sub-components and 3 indicators. The quality control state could cover the application stage, selection stage, and certification stage for certification of external assessors with the highest efficiency comprising the major component 5, external assessor quality control comprising 3 minor components: agencies which examined the quality of external assessors, external assessor development, and lengths of time for assessing external assessor quality, all with 17 sub-components.  For the results of assessing the ASCQ Model by 5 qualified persons, it was found as a whole to have quality at a high level (X = 3.74). When each aspect was considered, the quality was found to be at a high level in every aspect (= 3.60-4.00).  In conclusion, the ASCQ Model obtained from this study was a concept that organizations involving in certification of external assessors could apply to certifying external assessors in educational quality assessment of basic education, which was appropriate and possible in the context of Thailand.