Education Commons^™

Timss 2015 : A First Look At Australia's Results, Sue Thomson, Nicole Wernert, Elizabeth O'Grady, Sima Rodrigues

Elizabeth O'Grady

The goal of TIMSS is to provide comparative information about educational achievement across countries to improve teaching and learning in mathematics and science. It is designed, broadly, to align with the mathematics and science curricula in the participating education systems and countries, and focuses on assessment at Year 4 and Year 8. It also provides comparative perspectives on trends in achievement in the context of different education systems, school organisational approaches and instructional practices; and to enable this, TIMSS collects a rich array of background data from students, schools and teachers, and also collects data about the education systems themselves. …

Timss 2015 : A First Look At Australia's Results, Sue Thomson, Nicole Wernert, Elizabeth O'Grady, Sima Rodrigues

Nicole Wernert

The goal of TIMSS is to provide comparative information about educational achievement across countries to improve teaching and learning in mathematics and science. It is designed, broadly, to align with the mathematics and science curricula in the participating education systems and countries, and focuses on assessment at Year 4 and Year 8. It also provides comparative perspectives on trends in achievement in the context of different education systems, school organisational approaches and instructional practices; and to enable this, TIMSS collects a rich array of background data from students, schools and teachers, and also collects data about the education systems themselves. …

The Development Of A Single Scale For Mapping Progress In Mathematical Competence, Ross Turner, Gayl O'Connor

Ross Turner

The authors’ intention is to develop a progress map that describes increasing mathematical competence. The main purpose of this chapter is to describe the means by which the research team has been able to use the data from a longitudinal testing program to build and refine a picture of growth in mathematical competence. In this chapter, conceptualisation of the underlying variable to be measured in developing a mathematical progress map is considered, and approaches to its development are discussed. The approach adopted is described and the results of the application of that methodology to the data generated through this research …

Understanding And Addressing The Learning Needs Of Our Highest-Performing Students, Geoff N. Masters

Prof Geoff Masters AO

No abstract provided.

Unfinished Business : Pisa Shows Indigenous Youth Are Being Left Behind, Tony Dreise, Sue Thomson

Dr Sue Thomson

The latest international assessment of students’ mathematical, scientific and reading literacy – the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) – shows that the gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous students has remained the same for the last decade. In short, Indigenous 15-yearolds remain approximately two-and-a-half years behind their non-Indigenous peers in schooling.

This essay provides a précis of the results and analysis of some of the issues; it compares Indigenous performance in 2012 with that from previous PISA cycles; and discusses a range of implications for policy and practice.

Confusing Achievement With Aptitude, Dave Powell

Dave Powell

My wife and I read and reread the words several times, allowing them to sink in. "Being in an academic class would cause him harm," the principal wrote about our son, "as the rigor would be too great." The report continued, "He would be the lowest-ability student in the class and by a large margin." It is a day you don't soon forget when the principal of your son's school tells you—in an email, no less—that your child simply is not capable of managing academic work. [excerpt]

Measuring Progress, Geoff Masters

Prof Geoff Masters AO

Geoff Masters discusses the need for a system of educational assessment that provides long-term pictures of student progress.

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

Dr John Ainley

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 …

Principals’ Sense Of Efficacy And Cultural Factors In Rural West Virginia Schools, Louis Watts, Cynthia Kolsun, Vicky Cline, Leatha Williams

Louis K Watts

Some studies of rural education in the United States suggest there are unique features of rural communities that affect schooling and student outcomes. Appalachia has been a special interest of many studies. Chenoweth and Galliher (2004) measured the influence of three cultural factors associated with Appalachia on the college aspirations of rural West Virginia high school students: (1) localism, a sense of connection to the land, (2) historicism, the sense of understanding one’s place in the family and region where born, and (3) familism, the tendency to maintain close family ties geographically and interpersonally. A key influence in creating effective …

Do Declining Neighborhood Economic Conditions Trump Hoped For School Renovation Renewal Benefit?, John W. Hill

John W. Hill

The purpose of this study was to determine (a) individual student achievement, (b) teacher mobility rates, (c) perceptions of safety at school, and (d) student enrollment patterns, over time, in two recently renovated, same city, urban, No Child Left Behind compliant, Title I elementary school buildings located in close proximity neighborhoods one with improving the other with declining economic conditions. Achievement results indicated that fifth-grade students (n = 18) who attended a renovated school second-grade through fifth-grade in a neighborhood with improving economic conditions compared to fifth-grade students (n = 15) who attended a renovated school second-grade through fifth-grade in …

Understanding Educational Achievement And Outcomes: Person, Process And Context, Mary Ainley, Sarah Buckley

Dr Sarah Buckley

No abstract provided.

High School Exit Examinations: When Do Learning Effects Generalize?, John H. Bishop

John H Bishop

This paper reviews international and domestic evidence on the effects of three types of high school exit exam systems: voluntary curriculum-based external exit exams, universal curriculum-based external exit exam systems and minimum competency tests that must be passed to receive a regular high school diploma. The nations and provinces that use Universal CBEEES (and typically teacher grades as well) to signal student achievement have significantly higher achievement levels and smaller differentials by family background than otherwise comparable jurisdictions that base high stakes decisions on voluntary college admissions tests and/or teacher grades. The introduction of Universal CBEEES in New York and …

The Role Of End-Of-Course Exams And Minimum Competency Exams In Standards-Based Reforms, John H. Bishop, Ferran Mane, Michael Bishop, Joan Moriarty

John H Bishop

[Excerpt] Educational reformers and most of the American public believe that most teachers ask too little of their pupils. These low expectations, they believe, result in watered down curricula and a tolerance of mediocre teaching and inappropriate student behavior. The result is that the prophecy of low achievement becomes self-fulfilling. Although research has shown that learning gains are substantially larger when students take more demanding courses2, only a minority of students enroll in these courses. There are several reasons for this. Guidance counselors in many schools allow only a select few into the most challenging courses. While most schools give …

Do Curriculum-Based External Exit Exam Systems Enhance Student Achievement?, John H. Bishop

John H Bishop

[Excerpt] It is claimed that 'curriculum-based external exit exam systems', CBEEES, based on world class content standards will improve teaching and learning of core subjects. What evidence is there for this claim? New York's Regents Exams are an example of such a system. Do New York students outperform students with similar socio-economic backgrounds from other states? Outside the United States such systems are the rule, not the exception. What impacts have such systems had on school policies, teaching and student learning?

The Effect Of Curriculum-Based Exit Exam Systems On Student Achievement, John H. Bishop

John H Bishop

[Excerpt] Two presidents, the National Governors Association and numerous blue ribbon panels have called for the development of state or national content standards for core subjects and examinations that assess the achievement of these standards. The Competitiveness Policy Council, for example, advocates that "external assessments be given to individual students at the secondary level and that the results should be a major but not exclusive factor qualifying for college and better jobs at better wages (1993, p. 30)." It is claimed that 'curriculum-based external exit exam systems', CBEEES, based on world class content standards will improve teaching and learning of …

Pisa : Frequently Answered Criticisms, Ray Adams

Prof Ray Adams

Studies such as PISA that attempt to compare outcomes across educational systems are expensive and difficult to implement. Further, the results of such studies are routinely criticized by educational commentators - particularly when the results are not consistent with their preconceived ideas about the relative merits and efficiencies of various educational practices and systems. This chapter discusses what is done to ameliorate the threats to the validity of PISA in five areas often targeted by commentators and reviewers as sources of invalidity in international comparisons. The five areas discussed are: (1) sampling - are the samples of students who undertake …

Learning Mathematics For Life : A Perspective From Pisa, Jan De Lange, Alla Routitsky, Kaye Stacey, Ross Turner, Margaret Wu, Andreas Schleicher, Claire Shewbridge, Pablo Zoido, Nicola Clements

Dr Alla Routitsky

People from many countries have expressed interest in the tests students take for the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). This book examines the link between the PISA test requirements and student performance. It focuses specifically on the proportions of students who answer questions correctly across a range of difficulty. The questions are classified by content, competencies, context and format, and the connections between these and student performance are then analysed. This analysis has been carried out in an effort to link PISA results to curricular programs and structures in participating countries and economies. Results from the student assessment reflect …

Vive La Révolution!, Julian Fraillon

Julian Fraillon

If challenges in implementation and equity can be satisfactorily resolved, then the Government's Digital Education Revolution should reap results. This article examines the likely impact of the Government's plan. It is worth revisiting the policy and looking at the research into student ICT literacy to get a clear picture of what the 'digital revolution' will mean for schools, teachers, students and parents. The policy is built around five key themes: (1) to provide grants to schools of up to $1m to put a computer on the desk of every upper secondary school student; (2) to provide schools with FTTP (fibre …

The Development Of A Single Scale For Mapping Progress In Mathematical Competence, Ross Turner, Gayl O'Connor

Gayl O'Connor

The authors’ intention is to develop a progress map that describes increasing mathematical competence. The main purpose of this chapter is to describe the means by which the research team has been able to use the data from a longitudinal testing program to build and refine a picture of growth in mathematical competence. In this chapter, conceptualisation of the underlying variable to be measured in developing a mathematical progress map is considered, and approaches to its development are discussed. The approach adopted is described and the results of the application of that methodology to the data generated through this research …

Mathematics, Creating The Future: Proceedings Of The 16th Biennial Conference Of The Australian Association Of Mathematics Teachers, Melbourne, July 1997

Dr Hilary Hollingsworth

No abstract provided.