Job Description
Scope of work:
The consultancy will deliver specialized psychometric support to strengthen the design, implementation, and use of national learning and skills assessments in South Asia. The primary focus will be on country-level engagement—conducting psychometric reviews, providing technical recommendations, and building national capacity—while also contributing to regional knowledge products and global public goods. Activities will align with the programme’s Theory of Change (ToC) pillars, emphasizing stronger assessment rigor and comparability, sustainable institutional expertise, and the generation of data that strengthens system management and accountability, informs teacher support and classroom practice, and supports preparedness and response in emergency contexts for improving learning and skills outcomes.
Country-Level Support
The support will include:
- Psychometric reviews of national assessments, covering sampling, scaling, item analysis, reliability/validity, and comparability across cycles, with explicit attention to their relevance for system management and accountability, alignment with teacher support and classroom/formative assessment practices, and adaptability for both development and emergency contexts.
- Translation of psychometric findings into actionable recommendations for Ministries of Education and UNICEF Country Offices, demonstrating how assessment results can be applied to strengthen system accountability frameworks, inform teacher support and classroom practices, and guide emergency preparedness and response in education.
- Capacity transfer to national teams through tailored workshops, practical training modules, and ongoing mentoring, focused on applied psychometrics and effective data use for policy planning, system management (including from district offices/local governments),classroom improvement, and preparedness/response in emergency contexts.
- Where relevant, review and adaptation of crisis-sensitive assessment items, ensuring they are fair, reliable, and usable in emergency contexts, while also linking with classroom-level formative tools and mechanisms for accountability at national, sub-national, and community levels
Global/Regional-Level Support
The support will include:
- Global literature/desk review on approaches to measuring social-emotional learning (SEL) and mental health/psychosocial support (MHPSS) in emergency contexts, with lessons and applicability to South Asia.
- Joint regional knowledge product (e.g., guidance note or technical brief) on psychometric rigor, inclusivity, and crisis-sensitive design, developed in collaboration with the regional programme team.
- Contributions to regional and global public goods on SEL and crisis-sensitive assessments, ensuring they complement existing UNICEF and partner initiatives (e.g., UNICEF ESARO’s EiE Toolbox, ECW’s Holistic Learning Outcomes Measurement initiative, INEE’s PSS-SEL Toolbox, allchildrenlearning.org assessmebt platform) and are effectively adapted and taken up by countries.
Job Specification
To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have…
Minimum requirements:
Education: Advanced degree in Educational Measurement, Psychometrics, or a closely related field
Knowledge/Expertise/Skills required:
Essential:
- At least 6 years of professional experience in large-scale learning assessment design, psychometric analysis (e.g., sampling, scaling, item analysis, validation), and reporting.
- Proven track record of collaboration with Ministries of Education and national assessment units in South Asia or comparable low- and middle-income contexts.
- Demonstrated experience in capacity strengthening and institutionalization of psychometric expertise, including strategies to mitigate staff turnover and sustain capacity.
- Strong facilitation and training skills, with the ability to translate technical concepts into accessible formats for policymakers, practitioners, and non-specialist audiences.
- Excellent command of English (written and spoken), with proven ability to produce high-quality technical documents and to communicate complex assessment findings in formats accessible to policymakers, practitioners, and non-specialist audience.
Desirable:
- Experience applying psychometric expertise in development and emergency contexts, including linking national assessments with classroom formative tools and assessment approaches used in crises.
- Familiarity with assessing non-academic domains, such as social-emotional learning (SEL) and mental health/psychosocial support (MHPSS), particularly in fragile or emergency settings.
- Knowledge of South Asian languages
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