Evaluation of CBC Assessment Framework and Its Effectiveness on Reliability and Validity of CBC Learning Outcomes in Kenya

Abstract

Kenya has been using Competency Based Curriculum (CBC) since 2017 to facilitate holistic learning based on skills, values, and attitudes instead of rote memorization. The success of this system is based on the reliability and validity of the assessment results. This paper examined the efficacy of Kenya CBC assessment framework by analyzing documents of 18 policy, institutional and academic sources. The study used qualitative research design involving document analysis. The target population of this study was official policy documents, curriculum guidelines, assessment guidelines, evaluation reports, and peer scholarly articles for the CBC in Kenya. The study employed purposive sampling to select documents that were most suitable and verifiable to achieve the research objectives. Analysis of the obtained data was done using qualitative content analysis based on thematic coding. The findings indicated that CBC assessments were associated with moderate reliability (41%) and validity (57%), variability in applying the rubrics, little moderation (28%) and weak construct validation. There was a high content-alignment (83%), and low empirical construct-testing (22%). The research findings revealed that the CBC framework is conceptually sound but lacks psychometric strength and fairness in different situations. The study recommends that MOE should enhance the calibration of the assessor, standardizing the rubrics, and the psychometric audit, and integration of the school context differences. There is need to improve technical and contextual validity of CBC assessments in order to measure the competencies of learners credibly.