The Centre for Assessment Research, Policy and Practice in Education (CARPE) is a Level 2 Research Centre within Dublin City University’s Institute of Education. Directed by Prof. Ernesto Panadero, CARPE leads research, policy engagement and innovation in assessment across the Irish and international education systems.
CARPE’s work spans a wide range of assessment-related fields, including classroom assessment, large-scale assessment, self-regulated learning, feedback, digital and multimodal data, psychometrics, and the responsible use of Artificial Intelligence in educational assessment. The centre brings together researchers, doctoral candidates, practitioners and international collaborators to advance rigorous evidence, inform policy, and strengthen assessment literacy.
CARPE engages actively with schools, higher education institutions, national agencies, and industry partners, ensuring that research contributes to educational improvement and public debate. The centre also hosts events, seminars and professional development activities aimed at supporting assessment capacity across all educational levels.
Established in 2015 by Prof. Michael O'Leary with the support of Prometric, and led by Dr Zita Lysaght (2022-2023) as interim director, their contributions laid the foundation for its current development.
Leadership
Prof. Ernesto Panadero (School of Policy & Practice) is the Prometric Chair in Assessment at CARPE. He is also the principal investigator of ERLA (Education, Regulated Learning & Assessment group) and holds an Honorary Professorship at CRADLE (Centre for Research in Assessment and Digital Learning), Deakin University (Australia).
He has ample experience as an external consultant and facilitator on full-day workshops for educational institutions (especially universities) interested in educational assessment and self-regulated learning. Examples of these workshops are: "Foundations of educational assessment", "How to deliver feedback that has an impact", "Design of assessment instruments", etc.
Dr. Darina Scully (Assistant Professor in Psychology, School of Human Development) is the Deputy Director of CARPE. She holds a B.A. (Mod.) and a Ph.D. in psychology from Trinity College, Dublin, with expertise in quantitative research methods, assessment, measurement & psychometrics, and child & adolescent development.
Upon completion of her doctoral studies in 2014, she joined Ireland’s Educational Research Centre (ERC), where she was involved in the implementation of international large-scale assessments (e.g., TIMSS) and the evaluation of the DEIS (Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools) programme. In 2016, she took up the inaugural Prometric postdoctoral fellowship in CARPE, specializing in assessment and test development in both the educational and professional testing spheres.
