Chapter 7 : Use of Assessments to Inform Educational Policies in French-Speaking Belgium

In French-speaking Belgium, the national assessments developed only lately, and there are not yet national assessments developed by professionals that can be used to evaluate trends. Therefore, the only tools available to rigorously evaluate trends are international assessments. French-speaking Belgium has participated in international assessments since the early 1970s and their results are highly valued by policy-makers. Their level of awareness of the strengths and weaknesses of the education system can be considered as good. However, until recently, the impact of international assessments on education policies has been limited. Only scattered initiatives have been taken. From 2014, an extremely ambitious plan called Pacte pour un enseignement d’excellence has been launched. The Pact tackles most of the systemic weaknesses of the education system in FS Belgium and addresses at the same time structural change (lowering grade repetition, moving to a comprehensive lower secondary education), curricular changes and governance in a long-term perspective. A significant reform of the system of national assessments is currently under discussion

assumption of Local Item Independence (LII).

assessments are usually scaled according to IRT models. One of the cornerstones of IRT models is th

Profinteg: a tool for real-life assessment of activities of daily living in patients with cognitive impairment

Although there are many instruments for assessing activities of daily living (IADL) in brain injured patients, few instruments specifically target cognitive impairment and its impact on IADL. The present study presents the development of the Profinteg instrument, a tool for real-life assessment as well as rehabilitation of IADL in patients with cognitive impairment. This two-stage instrument covers over 90 activities. Psychometric properties of the different Profinteg measures were explored in twenty-five patients with mild to severe cognitive difficulties and twenty-five caregivers. The feasibility of the Profinteg rehabilitation procedure was explored in three patients. Excellent interrater reliability (r > 0.90,p < 0.01) was observed for all measures. Good sensitivity to changes in IADL disability over time was also observed (T= 2.37,p < 0.02). Significant improvement of IADL functioning was found after rehabilitation guided by Profinteg assessment. The Profinteg instrument detects with precision the difficulties patients encounter in their real-life setting via (I) assessment of a large number of activities and (2) detailed decomposition of activities into sub-activities. The Profinteg tool also provides promising results for guidance of IADL rehabilitation in the patient's real-life environment