Research studies

The following Assessment research studies address a range of topics related to the IB educational programmes that include IB summative assessments, the Diploma Programme (DP), Career-related Programme (CP) and Middle Years Programme (MYP). These studies focus on assessment-related issues and ensure that IB assessment and its examination processing are appropriately informed by current research.

Investigating how access to statistical evidence influences examiners’ grading judgements in grade awarding

This study explored whether access to statistical evidence on exams influenced examiners’ grading decisions, by comparing grade awards when examiners reviewed statistical evidence prior to grading, with grade awards when they did not.

Benchmarking selected IB language courses to the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR)

This study commissioned by the IB aims to assist universities in determining the language proficiencies of DP and CP students without the need for additional testing.

Report on the DP Academic Honesty Survey

Statistical grade boundary setting approaches

In this study, AlphaPlus reviewed different statistical methods for calculating recommended grade boundaries and considered their suitability for different scenarios in DP and MYP assessments.

Summative assessments in a multilingual context

This study explores comparability in assessments across different languages by asking bilingual examiners to use comparative judgement to assess student work in both English and Spanish.

What is good practice for Open Book Assessment

Allowing students to use reference aids—a data booklet, a textbook or sometimes a brief summary of their own notes—is not new, although it has become more popular during the pandemic. This study highlights what would IB need to consider and what would that mean for schools if more IB exams would become open book in the future?

Is DP science lost in translation?

In this study, Oxford University analysed student data from the May 2018 and 2019 DP science exams to explain some of the differences in student achievement. They found that IB translations are of high quality.