UAE STEM Schools

Building a Culture of Diagnostic Assessment

Tony Sherborne served as Head of Curriculum for the Applied Technology High Schools (ATHS)—the UAE’s flagship network of STEM academies dedicated to producing the nation's future engineers, technicians and scientists.

A major challenge, common to many high-performing systems, was the pressure of assessment. There was a culture of constant testing to measure achievement, but little systematic use of that data to actually improve teaching and learning.

The goal was to shift the system's focus from high-stakes summative testing to a more effective model of diagnostic, formative assessment. This required a dual approach: first, designing a robust system to provide meaningful data without increasing teacher workload; and second, leading a professional development programme to give teachers the tools and confidence to use that data for adaptive, mastery-oriented teaching.

Tony and his team devised a Mastery Learning Programme, replacing half-termly tests with low-stakes diagnostic assessments focused on conceptual understanding and application rather than factual recall.

To ensure the system was manageable for teachers, the assessments were delivered and marked digitally, feeding into a spreadsheet that instantly highlighted the specific concepts and skills students were struggling with. Alongside this, the curriculum team coached teachers on using this data to plan targeted "remediation" lessons—a core component of adaptive teaching.

The shift to a diagnostic model led to a 25% improvement in pass rates for Maths and Physics—the subjects that previously had the lowest scores—and kickstarted the culture shift toward responsive, effective assessment for learning.