International Standard Setting Exercise

The GEM Centre provides technical support to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Institute for Statistics (UIS), which has been mandated to monitor the progress of countries towards achieving the education goals of Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG 4). The International Standard Setting Exercise (ISSE) was undertaken to harmonise quantitative data across assessment programs, and to provide substantive information about children’s learning levels and progress benchmarked against international standards. The goal of the ISSE was to place thresholds on empirical reading and mathematics Learning Progression Scales for the Minimum Proficiency Level at the end of lower primary education; the Minimum Proficiency Level at the end of primary education; and the Minimum Proficiency Level at the end of lower secondary education