Multistage assessment technology to ensure the quality of final attestation in higher education

The purpose of the article is to present the technology of multistage assessment during final attestation in higher education.This technology is designed to ensure compliance with the principles of objectivity and independence of final attestation, which are normatively established in educational legislation.The scientific problem of justifying the choice of assessment technology during final attestation is relevant for several reasons.Firstly, the competency-based interpretation of students learning outcomeson educational programs varies quite widely when competencies are decomposed.Secondly, the lack of generally accepted approaches to the formation and use of assessment tools both for the internal system for assessing the quality of education and for external attestation procedures.Thirdly, the realities of the second decade of the 21st century, associated with the widespread introduction of distance technologies, the capabilities of computers with increased computing power for processing big data, force us to rethink approaches to the organization of all pedagogical control and assessment activities, both from the standpoint of its effectiveness and from the standpoint of evidence-based arguments for assessment results specified by standards and management decisions made on their basis.These reasons lead to the need to search for relevant technology that can overcome existing difficulties and at the same time ensure the receipt of reliable, valid and authentic results, reducing non-verbal pressure on those being certified and ensuring the quality of the attestation procedure itself.To implement such an attestation procedure, the concept of multistage assessment is introduced, which represents a certain sequence of interrelated and interdependent scientifically based stages and procedures for creating, presenting and estimation the results of performing assessment tasks of attestation tools.The multistage assessment technology presented in this article serves to ensure quality in attestation procedures of high significance, which are essential for making various types of management decisions.Due to several stages of assessment, involving the use of various assessment tools at each stage in accordance with the allocated level of competence development (minimum -"satisfactory", basic -"good", high -"excellent"), an increase in the reliability, validity and authenticity of the results of graduates is ensured.The implementation of such technology is based on a biparadigm approach to educational measurements and test theory.The development of tools and its use in multistage assessment requires taking into account special provisions that provide scientific substantiation of the quality of all components of the process, means and results of educational measurements.Processing, analysis and interpretation of measurement results at various levels must be carried out in strict accordance with the rules and groups of permissible operations allocated for each level of measurement, and taking into account the specifics of the variables being assessed.Failure to comply with data processing rules may lead to unfair assessment of graduates and incorrect attestation conclusions.