Sudipto Kar

As a senior research manager and Assessment specialist, I possess technical proficiency in designing assessments, conducting surveys, and Impact Evaluation Studies, backed by 10+ years of experience. My career spans working with esteemed educational institutions like Pratham Education Foundation and collaborating with research and assessment NGOs like PAL Network, ACER (Australian Council of Education Research), ETS, EkStep, USAID, RTI International, etc. I've actively participated in numerous assessment programs and made significant contributions to projects in middle-income countries across Africa, America, and Asia. Notably, I have played key roles in developing and overseeing international studies such as ICAN and ELANA, as well as contributing to the creation and management of e-learning digital products like the ASER digital assessment tool.

• Travelling
• Connecting with people and
• Collecting Currency

Annual Status of Education Report - ASER 2024

ASER (Annual Status of Education Report) is an initiative undertaken by the Pratham Education Foundation in India. It aims to assess the status of education across the country, focusing on the foundational skills of children, such as reading and arithmetic.

My role is to lead the development of the ASER tools in multiple Indian languages by guiding a team of Assessment experts, subject matter experts, and Regional/state team members.

• Preparing frameworks, Developing Item banks, training
• Guiding the state team to trans-adapting the tools in their state languages
• Coordinating and managing Story-writing workshops
• Conducting pilots and analyzing the data to check the reliability and validity of the tools.
• Writing technical reports, etc.

PAL - Early Language & Literacy and Numeracy Assessment (PAL-ELANA) 2020 – 2024

PAL (People's Action for Learning) Network is a global coalition of organizations working towards improving the quality of education through citizen-led assessments.

ELANA (Early Learning and Numeracy Assessment) is one of PAL Network's flagship initiatives, focusing on early childhood education and foundational numeracy skills. ELANA aims to identify learning gaps and inform policy decisions to enhance early childhood education programs by advocating quality education for all children, particularly in 12 low- and middle-income countries.

My role included leading the program at Pratham and providing guidance to the technology team for the development of the PAL-ELANA App in multiple languages. Additionally, I led the development of the Numeracy assessment tool.

• Formulating budgets and inception reports
• Strategizing and executing the project across all member countries
• Sharing project updates with Directors on weekly basis.
• Development of ELANA – Numeracy assessment, which involved:

1. Conducting a literature review of international, regional, and     country-specific assessments, policies, textbooks, and frameworks

2. Creating test design and framework documents

3. Establishing item banks and coordinating pilot tests across participating countries

4. Refining items for subsequent levels based on findings from the Pilot using Item Response Theory (IRT) analysis, in collaboration with ACER

5. Finalizing the design for a Multistage Adaptive Approach

• Overseeing the survey in India and monitoring surveys in other countries
• Drafting technical documents such as assessment frameworks, process documentation, tool development stages, manuals, and formats for training and conducting surveys.

International Common Assessment of Numeracy (ICAN) – 2019 and 2022

ICAN is an open-source, robust, and easy-to-use assessment tool, available in 11 languages, that offers international comparability of results aligned to SDG 4.1.1 (a). ICAN was developed through a collaborative effort among PAL Network member organisations in 13 low and middle-income countries across Africa, Americas, and Asia.

My primary role was to lead the operations in South Asian countries and work closely with the ASER India team to oversee the implementation of the ICAN survey in the sampled districts. It also involved other tasks such as

• Supported in the development of the ICAN Assessment tool and framework
• Reviewing the tools for South Asian countries – India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal
• Facilitating core group training, monitoring and
• Assisting the PAL Team with analyzing the assessment data and writing reports.

Beyond Basics - ASER 2017 & 2023

It is a nation-wide citizen-led household survey. It provides insights into the activities and preparedness of youth aged 14 to 18 for leading productive lives as adults.

My role involved developing the Beyond Basic tool along with other members of the survey Unit.

• Supported in the development of the Assessment tool and framework
• Guiding the state team to trans-adapting the tools in their state languages
• Reviewing the tools, facilitating trainings of the core group
• Supporting the Survey team by managing and supporting the National and state level trainings.

USAID- RTI: Asia Early Grade Reading assessment (India) – 2017

In September 2017, USAID commissioned RTI and ASER Centre to conduct the Analysis of Early Grade Reading Assessment (EGRA) in India activity. Together RTI and Pratham developed a research plan and modified standard ASER and EGRA instruments to serve the research objective.

My role involved:

• Conducting training sessions for survey implementation.
• Implementing the survey in relevant states.
• Providing support for adapting EGRA tools to suit the Indian context.

Vikram Guria

Assessment Lead, Assessment Unit, ASER centre

Phone: 9716331466

Email: Vikram.p.Guria@asercentre.org

Ketan Verma

Consultant - OECD - OCDE

Ex. Assessment lead, PAL Network

Phone: 9582814608

Email: connect.ketan@outlook.com

Dr. Suman Bhattacharjea

Director of Research, ASER centre

Email: suman@asercentre.org

• Data Literacy For Practitioners - Arizona State University (Issued Jul 2021)
• Assessment Capacity Building Workshop Series - Introduction to Objective Measurement - ACER Australia (Aug -Sep 2020)
• SSCLA - UNICEF Capacity Building workshop on Robust Learning Assessment Systems And Assessment Framework Development - ACER India (May 2019)
• IIEP- UNESCO MOOC on Learning Assessments (Feb 2016)