The Independent Schools ExamBoard (ISEB) is an assessment organisation founded in 1903 and sitting at the heart of the independent sector. They are perhaps most well-known for the Common Entrance exam (CE) and Common Pre-Tests (CPT). Since the appointment of its first CEO last year, ISEB has undergone a period of enormous change and has come a vast distance in a short time. The exam board has undertaken three major and successful project launches within a year. With core values of accept, transform and inspire and a core mission to support pupils, parents, schools and teachers to be the best they can be, they are taking steps to have a broader positive impact on education. ISEB’s roots stretch back to the first unified senior school entrance exam, so they have an extensive history of designing the highest quality assessments. Research-led, their assessment designs have robust academic underpinning with extensive data sitting behind them. The changes they have introduced make it clear they are an open and transparent board intent on sweeping away the mystery around assessments and demystifying what they do to achieve better outcomes for children and more support than ever for schools. ISEB believes great assessment should be inspiring and transformative and has set about making this a reality. Innovation is not something people traditionally associate with assessment, but it is where ISEB excels. They have undertaken the Herculean task of delivering an astonishing leap forward with rapid digital development and product releases. The leap was essential to meet their goal of connecting with their community more than ever as the school year started in September 2022. A new website enabled ISEB to establish growing resource hubs for schools, teachers and families. It also meant they could bring their CE past paper back catalogue under the board’s roof in an online shop. Encouraging independent sector schools and families to order Common Entrance papers through the shop and register on the new Common Pre-Test portals allow the board to highlight the additional free support they now offer. Creating and delivering high calibre assessments necessitates a commitment to vigorous and ongoing research. ISEB has always engaged with leading pedagogical academics, professors and professionals around the world. More recently, they partnered with edtech experts CENTURY to innovate how they use technology to develop assessments, learning materials and resources that can help children engage in several ways. For ISEB, the collaboration is about recognising the opportunities presented by technological advances to respond to the changing assessment needs of education today. ISEB launched the new online Common Pre-Tests this autumn. Designed on their new platform, the adaptive tests are powered by AI technology and neuroscience and represent the first major product of the partnership with CENTURY. CEO Julia Martin said, ‘We both bring our expertise to the partnership. They’re leading edtech experts and we’re assessment design and educational experts. Working together, it’s a partnership that’s delivering genuine innovation.’ One exciting feature of the new Common Pre-Tests is how it integrates SEND and well-being features. ISEB talks closely with school heads across the sector and has a deep insight into the impact of the pandemic on children at school. Covid has Dec21465 Educational Assessment Innovator of the Year 2022 - UK significantly affected a generation of students. ISEB has responded to education’s current mental health crisis by building accessibility into the test design for every child. Anxious children can hide the timer while everyone can adjust their screens. By giving children control over their exam environment, ISEB can alleviate some degree of stress. In the wider education sector, there is a tremendous amount of questioning over the validity and efficacy of certain public exams and whether they are fit for purpose. With that kind of scrutiny comes a huge opportunity to be responsible and do the right thing. More than ever, great organisations need to be values-led and inspire confidence. ISEBs growth is underpinned by its core values to transform, inspire, and ignite the independent school sector to accept others and take pride in themselves. Fairness, diversity and equitability begin in the ISEB team, which has trebled in the last twelve months. From there, it spreads into the content and assessments they produce. They strive to create a supportive community resource with support and advice for families, teachers and schools around every child. As the first twelve months under new leadership ends, the online bank of assessments, support and resources ISEB offer have proliferated. They have serious intentions to go even further and produce a range of innovative multimodal, formative and summative assessments that represent children in their broadest sense surfacing their strengths and helping them grow. The narrative around assessment is changing as research and technology inform and improve what can be offered. ISEB stands on the back of its experience, ready to forge the path in nextgeneration assessment design. Contact: Julia Martin Company: ISEB Ltd Web Address: https://www.iseb.co.uk/
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