Education Commons^™

Review Of The Australian Core Skills Framework And Digital Literacy Skills Framework And Relevant Assessment Tools. Final Report, Louise Wignall, Anita Roberts, Jana Scomazzon

Transition and Post-School Education and Training

This is the final report of a project commissioned in 2020 by the then Department of Education, Skills and Employment to review the Australian Core Skills Framework (ACSF) and Digital Literacy Skills Framework (DLSF) and tools available to support assessment using these frameworks. The review explored the development and history of the ACSF and DLSF, their use and application in the Australian context and examined features of selected international adult skills frameworks and curriculum. Through this desktop research and range of consultation activities with stakeholders, the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) has investigated current use of the ACSF and …

Assessment Of Children As Having A Strong Sense Of Identity In Early Childhood Education And Care: Literature Review, Jen Jackson, Kate Noble, Danielle Anzai, Pru Mitchell, Dan Cloney

Early Childhood Education

This review focuses on the Outcome: Children have a strong sense of identity. Its purpose is to equip early childhood professionals with the knowledge to identify and assess children’s progress towards this Outcome in all early childhood settings. Central to the child’s development of a sense of identity is their personal identity. This includes awareness of self, summed up in the statement: ‘I know who I am’, and includes the constructs of self-expression and self-awareness. A strong sense of identity requires that a child also appreciates who they are, summed up in the statement: ‘I value who I am’. The …

Supporting Examination Reform In Nepal, Mee Young Han

Teacher India

ACER is helping to ensure that school assessment in Nepal focuses on testing higher-order thinking skills.

Is Setting Higher Standards The Answer?, Geoff N. Masters Ao

Teacher columnist – Geoff Masters

Raising the expected performance standard in each year of school and holding all teachers and students accountable for achieving these higher standards may not be the most effective way to improve levels of performance in Australian schools.

A Different Way To Organise The School Curriculum, Geoff N. Masters Ao

Teacher columnist – Geoff Masters

There are good reasons to rethink how we organise the school curriculum. An alternative would be to structure the curriculum as a sequence of proficiency levels unrelated to age or year level.

Lifting Achievement Levels And Improving The Return On Australia’S Investment In Schooling : Submission To The Review To Achieve Educational Excellence In Australian Schools (Chair: Mr David Gonski), Australian Council For Educational Research (Acer)

Policy Analysis and Program Evaluation

Many students in our schools are not learning as well as they could because they are not being given learning opportunities at an appropriate level of challenge. Instead, students are grouped by year level (age) and teachers deliver curricula assumed to be appropriate for all students in the same year of school. However, the most advanced ten per cent of students in any year of school are five to six years ahead of the least advanced ten per cent. For less advanced students, the year-level curriculum is often too far ahead. Many are judged to be underperforming year after year, …

Shifting The Focus Of Naplan, Geoff N. Masters Ao

Teacher columnist – Geoff Masters

The decision to move NAPLAN online provides an opportunity to place less emphasis on comparing the performances of schools and more emphasis on supporting student learning, according to Professor Geoff Masters AO.

But Can We Measure It?, Geoff N. Masters Ao

Teacher columnist – Geoff Masters

It’s often asserted that some things can’t be measured, Professor Geoff Masters AO writes in his latest column. But how true is this? And if we can’t measure something, should we stop pretending we can teach or develop it?

Assessment Online: Informing Teaching And Learning, Geoff N. Masters Ao

Teacher columnist – Geoff Masters

Online assessments are capable of providing significantly improved feedback to teaching and learning. Experience in schools is demonstrating the potential of online assessment – provided the foundations are right.

Assessment Online: Informing Teaching And Learning, Geoff N. Masters

Teacher columnist – Geoff Masters

Online assessments are capable of providing significantly improved feedback to teaching and learning. Experience in schools is demonstrating the potential of online assessment – provided the foundations are right.

The advantages of online assessment are often described in terms of its administrative convenience, efficiency and lower costs. However, well-constructed online assessments also are capable of providing more timely, more instructionally useful feedback to teaching and learning. For a number of years ACER has been investigating ways to enhance the educational value of online assessments.

Pisa 2015: Financial Literacy In Australia, Sue Thomson, Lisa De Bortoli

OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) Australia

The main focus of the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) financial literacy assessment is on measuring the proficiency of 15-year-old students in demonstrating and applying the knowledge and skill that they have learned in and out of school. Like other PISA domains, financial literacy is assessed using an instrument designed to provide data that are valid, reliable and interpretable. PISA is an international comparative assessment of student achievement directed by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). PISA measures how well 15-year-olds, who are nearing the end of their compulsory schooling in most participating educational systems, are prepared …

How Well Are We Learning From Naplan?, Geoff N. Masters Ao

Teacher columnist – Geoff Masters

Some Australian schools and school systems have seen greater improvements in NAPLAN results than others. How well do we understand where improvements are occurring and why? Professor Geoff Masters AO discusses.

Inquiry-Based Learning: Assessing Students' Science Inquiry Skills, Abha Bhagat

Teacher India

Inquiry-based approaches to teaching yield substantial benefits to students, but assessment of students' science inquiry skills indicate more emphasis is needed on the development of inquiry-based teaching and learning in the classroom.

A Commitment To Growth, Geoff N. Masters Ao

Teacher columnist – Geoff Masters

Students begin each school year at very different stages in their learning and development. Nevertheless, every student should be expected to make excellent progress in their learning regardless of their starting point, Professor Geoff Masters AO writes.

Reform And The Senior Secondary School, Geoff N. Masters Ao

Teacher columnist – Geoff Masters

Traditional ways of thinking about learning, assessment and educational qualifications are being challenged. Professor Geoff Masters AO discusses the three challenges that a senior secondary school can expect to face.

Isa : International Schools' Assessment, Australian Council For Educational Research (Acer)

Monitoring Learning

This is a booklet describing the International Schools' Assessment (ISA), a set of tests used by international schools and schools with an international focus, to monitor student performance over time and to confirm that their internal assessments are aligned with international expectations of performance. The tests are designed and developed by the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER). The tests address: mathematical literacy, reading, writing and scientific literacy. The booklet outlines: the history of the ISA; the benefits to schools; marking; test validity and reliability; and the schools in each country who are using the tests.

Class 6 Girls And Boys In Afghanistan 2013 : Comparing Outcomes Of Girls And Boys From A Learning Assessment Of Mathematical, Reading And Writing Literacy, Alla Routitsky, Rachel Stanyon, Maurice Walker

Monitoring Trends in Educational Growth (MTEG)

This report presents the results of an assessment of reading, writing and mathematical literacy of Class 6 students in 13 provinces in Afghanistan in relation to the gender of students. The data were collected in late 2013. The purpose of Monitoring Trends in Educational Growth (MTEG) is to provide information to education policy makers on the quality of education outcomes in Afghanistan. In addition MTEG will inform educational practitioners by clearly demonstrating what students at Class 6 can and cannot do in an assessment situation. One of the policy areas that MTEG aims to inform is gender equality. It is …

Challenging Our Most Able Students, Geoff N. Masters Ao

Teacher columnist – Geoff Masters

Professor Geoff Masters AO discusses identifying and addressing the needs of individual learners in Australian schools.

Monitoring Trends In Educational Growth Class 6 Student Questionnaire Prepared In 2013 For The Ministry Of Education, Afghanistan: Source Version - English, Australian Council For Educational Research (Acer)

Monitoring Trends in Educational Growth (MTEG)

This student context questionnaire for year 6 students in Afghanistan, is a product of ACER’s Monitoring Trends in Educational Growth (MTEG) service. The questionnaire covers questions about the student, his/her family, schooling and interests.

Monitoring Trends In Educational Growth Class 6 Student Questionnaire Prepared In 2013 For The Ministry Of Education, Afghanistan : Translated Version - Pashto, Australian Council For Educational Research (Acer)

Monitoring Trends in Educational Growth (MTEG)

This student context questionnaire for year 6 students in Afghanistan, is a product of ACER’s Monitoring Trends in Educational Growth (MTEG) service. The questionnaire covers questions about the student, his/her family, schooling and interests. The questionnaire has been translated into the Afghani language of Pashto.

Monitoring Trends In Educational Growth Class 6 School Principal Questionnaire Prepared In 2013 For The Ministry Of Education, Afghanistan : Translated Version - Pashto, Australian Council For Educational Research (Acer)

Monitoring Trends in Educational Growth (MTEG)

This school context questionnaire for year 6 principals in Afghanistan, is produced by ACER’s Monitoring Trends in Educational Growth (MTEG) service. The questionnaire covers questions about the principal and his/her school. It has been translated into the Afghani language Pashto.

Monitoring Trends In Educational Growth In Afghanistan : Class 6 2013, Australian Council For Educational Research (Acer)

Monitoring Trends in Educational Growth (MTEG)

This document is a brief summary of the reading, writing and mathematical proficiency of year 6 students from Afghanistan who took part in the Monitoring Trends in Educational Growth (MTEG) study.

Monitoring Trends In Educational Growth Class 6 Student Questionnaire Prepared In 2013 For The Ministry Of Education, Afghanistan : Translated Version - Dari, Australian Council For Educational Research (Acer)

Monitoring Trends in Educational Growth (MTEG)

This student context questionnaire for year 6 students in Afghanistan, is a product of ACER’s Monitoring Trends in Educational Growth (MTEG) service. The questionnaire covers questions about the student, his/her family, schooling and interests. It has been translated into the Afghani language of Dari.

Monitoring Trends In Educational Growth Class 6 School Principal Questionnaire Prepared In 2013 For The Ministry Of Education, Afghanistan: Source Version - English, Australian Council For Educational Research (Acer)

Monitoring Trends in Educational Growth (MTEG)

This school context questionnaire for year 6 principals in Afghanistan, is produced by ACER’s Monitoring Trends in Educational Growth (MTEG) service. The questionnaire covers questions about the principal and his/her school.

Assessment: Getting To The Essence, Geoff N. Masters

Assessment and Reporting

The author argues that assessment in education has become over-conceptualised and overcomplicated, and assessment concepts and terminology introduced over the past half century sometimes now function as impediments to clear thinking and good practice. The one fundamental purpose of assessment in education, he says, is to establish and understand where learners are in an aspect of their learning at the time of assessment. When this is recognised, many supposedly important distinctions become less significant. Currently, however, such distinctions tend to result in fragmentation of the field, with proponents championing one assessment purpose or method while denigrating others. He explains why …

The Early Grade Reading Assessment: Assessing Children's Acquisition Of Basic Literacy Skills In Developing Countries (Superseded Version), Australian Council For Educational Research

Assessment GEMS

The Early Grade Reading Assessment (EGRA), administered individually in about 15 minutes, measures the most basic foundation skills for literacy acquisition in the early grades. The assessment was developed by the Research Triangle Institute (RTI) through funding provided by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the World Bank (Gove & Wetterberg, 2011), in addition to resources provided by RTI. The EGRA was developed to provide a battery of assessments of basic reading skills for developing countries to monitor the status of early reading in primary schools. The assessment tool was first implemented in The Gambia and Senegal …

The 'Literacy' Idea, Ross Turner

Assessment GEMS

A central reason why researchers and practitioners refer to domain literacy is to draw attention to the kinds of things students learn in the domain. In a traditional learning domain the focus might be on the acquisition of discrete facts, skills and procedures that have little obvious connection or utility. In a learning domain with a literacy orientation, the focus is on applying the domain’s facts, skills and procedures to support creativity and inventiveness, to solve novel problems and to deal with the kinds of challenges that life presents outside the classroom. In the case of mathematics, for example, a …

Towards A Growth Mindset In Assessment, Geoff N. Masters

Assessment and Reporting

The approaches we take to assessing learning, the kinds of tasks we assign and the way we report success or failure at school send powerful messages to students not only about their own learning, but also about the nature of learning itself. Assessment and reporting processes shape student, parent and community beliefs about learning – sometimes in unintended ways.

This essay describes three general approaches to evaluating and providing feedback on the outcomes of learning. Each approach is based on a particular way of thinking about what it means to learn successfully, and each has implications for how students view …

Measure For Measure : A Review Of Outcomes Of School Education In Australia, John Ainley, Eveline Gebhardt

Assessment and Reporting

There have been a plethora of research reports providing information about the achievements of students in Australian schools and how those achievements differ among jurisdictions and among groups of students. However, each report has often been viewed in isolation from other similar studies. This report is intended to provide an integrated appraisal of the results of the international and national achievement surveys conducted since 1994 but with some references to earlier studies. In addition to limiting the task to manageable proportions, this time span corresponds to the widespread introduction of modern measurement methods so that there is a better basis …

Evaluation Of The Assessment And Rating Process Under The National Quality Standard For Early Childhood Education And Care And School Age Care, Sheldon Rothman, David Kelly, Bridie Raban, Mollie Tobin, Jocelyn Cook, Kate O’Malley, Clare Ozolins, Meredith Bramich

Early Childhood Education

This evaluation of the assessment and rating process for early childhood education and care and school age care services had as its focus the validity and reliability of the process. In particular, do the items reviewed with the Assessment and Rating Instrument provide consistent and replicable measures? Would the judgements made by one authorised officer be made by other authorised officers reviewing the same service? Does the process—including use of the Instrument—allow distinctions between rating levels?

The evaluation was undertaken by the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER), which analysed assessment and rating data from both draft and final reports; …