David Price

Director – Educational Arts

Keynote 1: The Power of Us: How we Connect, Act and Innovate Together

David Price OBE opens the Surpass Conference with his keynote presentation. David will discuss how we maintain the momentum of change seen over the last few months, and how we build upon that to achieve lasting change.

Harry Patrinos

Practice Manager – World Bank Education

Keynote 2: The COVID-19 Cost of School Closures

With around 90% of the world’s learners affected by closures as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, in this keynote presentation, Harry Patrinos discusses the potential long-term economic impact of the pandemic. Join Harry for this fascinating presentation, to uncover the true cost of school closures, including learning loss, and effect on future earnings.

Liberty Munson, Ph.D.

Senior Psychometrician – Microsoft Worldwide Learning

Keynote 3: How Technology is Shaping the Future of Assessment: Imagine the Possibilities

Liberty is passionate about the need to rethink the certification industry. In her keynote presentation, Liberty explores the ways in which technology can shape the future of assessment, including the opportunity to think differently about the questions we ask, and how we evaluate them.

Come away from this engaging keynote presentation feeling inspired to challenge the status quo of assessment and leverage the full potential of technology to more accurately measure skills.

Graeme Clark

Head of Service, Digital Assessment, Support Materials and Understanding Standards – SQA

SQA: A View from Scotland Through the COVID Mist

Long-time member of the Surpass Community, and trailblazers for innovation and change, this presentation from Graeme Clarke of SQA brings us a holistic view of Scotland’s approach and response to recent global events. Graeme begins by outlining the impact COVID-19 has had specifically on the Scottish education system, where household internet access is much lower than that of the ‘UK’ average, before giving it a positive spin and talking about lessons learned, and how emergency responses to recent events have provided opportunities that, if acted on now, could shape the future in supporting greater access to national qualification assessments from the home.

Dave Mellor

Deputy Director of Assessment – AlphaPlus

AlphaPlus: Community Story

Dave Mellor has a wealth of experience in delivering high-stakes school examinations. During this session, Dave will be drawing on his own expertise and that of his colleagues at AlphaPlus to offer answers to the following questions:

• Globally, which school assessment models have been impacted the most during the pandemic?
• Would it have been possible to have just made the switch to remote forms of high-stakes delivery in England?

Dr. Lori Severino

Associate Clinical Professor – Drexel University Literacy Studies

Dr. Mary Jean Tecce DeCarlo

Assistant Professor – Drexel University School of Education

Drexel University: ACE (Adolescent Comprehension Evaluation) – A Solution Provided by LiteracyACE & Surpass

Join Dr. Mary Jean Tecce DeCarlo and Dr. Lori Severino from the School of Education at Drexel University, as they provide an update on their decision to utilise Surpass for the creation and delivery of the ACE (Adolescent Comprehension Evaluation) assessment.

ACE has been developed by Drexel University to provide a much-needed tool for assessing reading comprehension ability of students in grades 6-8. Research carried out by the School of Education revealed that students, particularly those with special educational needs, were being impacted by inadequate reading instruction due to a lack of appropriate assessment tools. By utilising Surpass for ACE, teachers gain access to extensive reporting data to better inform teaching instruction.

This promises to be a fascinating update on an innovative solution to improving the assessment experience for everyone. Join Dr. DeCarlo and Dr. Severino as they give an insight into the challenges they faced, why this problem needed solving, and why Surpass was chosen as the platform to best facilitate the ACE programme.

Amanda Dainis

CEO & Lead Psychometrician – Dainis and Company

Dainis and Company: In-person vs remote exam development: Supporting validity at every step

Join Amanda Dainis for this insightful session as she discusses validity in exam development. Amanda takes a look at both remote and in-person exam development activities, exploring how Surpass can help whatever your processes may be, whilst always keeping validity at the forefront.

Sean McDonald

Head of English Assessment – telc Language Tests

telc: From Pencil to Surpass (in one simple step)

In this Surpass Conference 2020 presentation, Sean offered the community an insight into the developments made with telc’s popular language testing program over the past year.

Romana Moss

Project Manager – WSET

WSET: Chill, Pop, Pour, What a Lockdown!

This presentation will outline WSET’s planned journey with Surpass to introduce computer-based testing on a BYOD basis at its Centres, in a reactionary international multilanguage exam environment that was slightly hijacked by COVID-19. Romana discusses how the lessons learned through remote invigilation will better inform their previous roll out plan.

Surpass Community

Surpass Community Updates

Watch messages from organisations that form part of the Surpass ecosystem.

Featuring Lineup, The e-Assessment Association, Dainis and Company, Arcadia, Alphaplus, ProctorExam, Gordon Associates, Comms Multilingual, and Examity:

Featuring Gateway Qualifications, Wine & Spirit Education Trust, Association of Project Management, AGMT, Drexel University, telc – Language Tests, Association of Corporate Treasurers, and NCFE:

Featuring Dainis and Company, AGMT, Association of Corporate Treasurers, NCFE, Wine & Spirit Education Trust, Lineup, and Alphaplus: