Representational image of a school in a village in Maharashtra. The National Achievement Survey 2021 found that the national average scores in grades and subjects were lower in 2021 than in 2017. Photo Credit: Getty Images
National Achievement Survey (NAS) 2021, a large-scale national survey conducted every three years by the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT), assesses the learning levels of children. The NAS 2021 survey, which assessed more than 3.4 million students in grades 3, 5, 8 and 10, found that mean scores across all grades and subjects were lower in 2021 than in 2017. tenth grade
Inspired by such alarming news, most states are now conducting their own surveys to closely assess the learning needs of students and invest in training and learning materials to improve learning levels. However, unless such state efforts are purposeful, systematic and data-based, they are unlikely to provide specific and targeted interventions to improve learning. Their efforts may also be futile if they are guided by what the data do not tell.
defragment NAS result
First, low state-average NAS scores don’t necessarily mean that every district or type of school is performing poorly; State averages can still hide high performers. The strategy is to link the NAS data with the U-DISE database of schools in India (maintained by the National Informatics Centre) to look for predictors of better or worse performance. For example, if the level of language learning is poor in all tribal blocks except two, the state will have to undertake a study of these exceptions.
If linking U-DISE to NAS seems complicated, states can still do preliminary data dives within NAS district reports to account for intra-grade discrepancies (e.g., worse grade 3 but higher grade 5 results in the same school type). Can be detected or even high and low can be detected. Display school type for further analysis.
For another example, consider the Central district in New Delhi. Here, the NAS shows that students from private unaided schools and central government schools score significantly higher in language and maths in grade 5 than other school types. This data can then be used to find out what private and central government schools have in common in terms of policies, pedagogy and practices.
Study the matter
The NAS is a useful and quantitative pen-and-paper test that ‘describes’ the level of learning. So as a next step, states should conduct research that ‘prescribes’ or ‘suggests’ what to do and how. Here’s where qualitative case studies can be useful for discovering stories Back Why and how student learning is improving in some schools and classrooms. Case studies – perhaps of the exceptional schools found in the first step above – may reveal useful exploitation and exploration strategies (see, for example, March 1991) to promote learning. Contrary to popular opinion, case studies can also reveal generalizable insights (flybjerg 2016,
For example, researchers could ‘hang out’ for a week with classes in grades 3 and 5 at one private, one state-run and one Kendriya Vidyalaya in New Delhi, to compare classroom- and school-level practices What teachers and students get. effective. Similarly, shadowing block or district education officers from an exceptionally well performing block or district can yield actionable insights.
Exploitation Strategies include finding local micro-improvements that require zero financial or training investment, such as teacher collaboration or building ‘learning communities’ of block and district educational administrators, which can be balanced against. Investigation Strategies such as purchasing proven educational technology and developing new teaching-learning materials.
pilot before scaling
Once research has suggested that potentially effective practices and policies to improve learning should be pilot-tested to fine-tune them for different schools. Otherwise, potentially effective exercises – such as the focused use of text collaboration or open-ended questions, which would have worked well – may be abandoned simply because not enough time was given or because they required minor adaptation.
Pilot-testing also reveals the preconditions for success that a state must ensure before implementing new practices and policies. Identifying the conditions for success and the subsequent ability of schools to achieve those conditions helps avoid cycles of underperformance despite implementing ‘proven’ solutions.
For example, New Delhi could select a diverse set of 20 schools to implement some potentially effective practices and policies. A research team can monitor the fidelity of implementation and find out what conditions, adaptation and step-wise sequence of introduction are necessary before scaling them up to all schools.
data-action cycle
State governments should hope that scaling effective local practices and innovations into their schools is powerful but also only half the picture. States should think long term and establish a data cycle in each school, block and district to inform action.
Effective practices, in our experience, tend to get adapted until they become good habits in the school/institutional culture. When such an approach was implemented in 8,250 schools in five districts of Uttar Pradesh in 2018-2019, it significantly improved learning levels.
Overall, the NAS results are a guiding light for states on how they can learn from their schools and develop a fresh assessment culture – one that uses data about learning levels as a stimulus for research. Values and where assessment is not a chore but a curiosity driven enterprise that can be voluntary and celebratory. It is time to reorient our immediate and long-term approach to improving learning levels by being purposeful, systematic and data-driven.
Gopal Middha holds a PhD in Educational Leadership from the University of Virginia and has over 15 years of experience in educational research in India and the US. Subir Shukla is the former Educational Quality Advisor to the erstwhile MHRD and lead coordinator of the group IGNUS.