Educational Testing, Assessment, and Quality Assurance

Abstract

The 1999 National Education Act emphasizes the importance of educational testing, assessment, and quality assurance in Thailand. This led to the establishment of two public organizations, namely, the Office for National Education Standards and Quality Assessment (ONESQA) and the National Institute of Educational Testing Service (NIETS) by Royal Decree in 2000 and 2005, respectively. The objective of this chapter is to provide an overview of educational testing and assessment at the national level in Thailand and to examine the roles and achievements of both ONESQA and NIETS. It was found that in the third round of external quality assessment, the certification rates of educational institutions at the basic education, vocational education, and higher education levels were 62.1%, 79.7%, and 97.3%, respectively. The median O-NET scores of students in Grades 6, 9, and 12 were 45.3%, 40.9%, and 35.6%. The students were found to have rather low O-NET scores in the important subject areas of mathematics and English language. Finally, a futures research methodology introduced by the late Professor Robert B. Textor (1980) was used to assess the future of ONESQA and NIETS.