From 25th to 28th November 2026, the educational assessment community will gather in Rome for AEA Europe 2026 to examine a question that reaches well beyond one conference theme: how do we build the assessment literacy needed to use new tools responsibly, interpret evidence well and make sound decisions across increasingly complex systems?
This year’s theme, Assessment Literacy: Building Capacity for Quality Assessment Across Educational Systems and Assessment Providers, speaks directly to the pressures many awarding bodies, assessment teams and education leaders are working through now. As AI becomes part of more assessment conversations, the challenge is not to treat it as a shortcut or a foregone conclusion. It is to understand where it can help, where caution is warranted, and what trustworthy implementation looks like in practice.
AEA Europe provides a valuable setting for those conversations. Researchers, policymakers, practitioners and assessment providers will be bringing different perspectives on quality, evidence and implementation. That mix matters. Good decisions in assessment rarely come from a single viewpoint, particularly when the implications reach candidates, markers and institutions in different ways.