Referencing

Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority 2016, About, Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority, retrieved 16 of April 2019, https://www.nap.edu.au/about

Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority 2016, About ACARA, Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority, retrieved 16 April 2019, https://www.nap.edu.au/about/about-acara

Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority 2016, NAPLAN, Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority, retrieved 16 April 2019, https://www.nap.edu.au/naplan

Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority 2016, Results and reports, Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority, retrieved 16 April 2019, https://www.nap.edu.au/results-and-reports

Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority, Wallarano Primary School – Noble Park – NAPLAN, Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority, retrieved 18 April 2019, https://www.myschool.edu.au/school/44995/naplan/numbers

Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership 2017, Standards, Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership, retrieved 18 April 2019, https://www.aitsl.edu.au/teach/standards#!

 Department of Education Western Australia 2019, ‘Curriculum Assessment and Reporting For Public Schools Policy and Procedures’, Department of Education Western Australia, retrieved 16 of April 2019, http://det.wa.edu.au/policies/detcms/policy-planning-and-accountability/policies-framework/policies/curriculum-assessment-and-reporting-for-public-schools-policy-and-procedures.en?cat-id=3457121

Eriksson, K 2018, ‘Using TIMSS items to evaluate the effectiveness of different instructional practices’, Instructional Science, vol. 47, no. 1, pp. 1 -18, https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11251-018-9473-1

Harrington, M 2013, Improving School Performance, Parliament of Australia, retrieved 18 April 2019, https://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_Departments/Parliamentary_Library/pubs/BriefingBook44p/SchoolPerformance

International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement 2019, About Us, International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement, retrieved 18 April 2019, https://www.iea.nl/about-us

National Research Council 2002, Investigating the influence of standards: a framework for research in Mathematics, science and technology education, The National Academies Press, retrieved 18 April 2019, https://www.nap.edu/read/10023/chapter/8

NSW Department of Education 2019, Curriculum Planning and Programming – Assessing and Reporting to Parents k-12, NSW Department of Education, retrieved 19 April 2019, https://education.nsw.gov.au/policy-library/policies/curriculum-planning-and-programming-assessing-and-reporting-to-parents-k-12

Marsh, S 2019, ‘Parents urged not to pull children from NAPLAN testing’, 9 News.com, April 9, retrieved 18 April 2019, https://www.9news.com.au/national/naplan-tests-government-urges-parents-not-to-pull-children/2338079e-72fa-4d7a-b70d-7ae1d5c4d73b

 The Australian Council for Educational Research 2019, Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) – Assessment, The Australian Council for Educational Research, retrieved 17 of April 2019, https://www.acer.org/au/timss/assessment

The Australian Council for Educational Research 2019, Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) - Overview, The Australian Council for Educational Research, retrieved 17 of April 2019, https://www.acer.org/au/timss

Thompson, G & Harbaugh, A.G 2012, ‘The Effects of NAPLAN: Teacher perceptions of the impact of NAPLAN on pedagogy and curriculum’, in Australian Association for Research in Education, Proceedings of the Joint AARE/APERA Conference, Murdoch University, Sydney, pp. 1 -20, https://eprints.qut.edu.au/86167/1/86167.pdf

Thomson, S, Wernet, N, O’Grady, E & Rodrigues, S 2015, TIMSS 2015 – A first look at Australia’s Results, Australian Council for Educational Research, retrieved 18 April 2019, https://research.acer.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=&httpsredir=1&article=1000&context=timss_2015

Reflection

Through completing this compendium, I have been able to understand a little more depth about how vital it is for assessment coming both from the school and from externally. It plays a huge role in the content that gets taught within the classroom, even if you do not intend to teach to the test per say. I believe that the knowledge I now have will shape my ability to seen assessment for what it is, which is a tool to assist teachers in better understanding where their students are at and how to assist them in developing their skills.

I found it interesting, however not so surprising that students begin to get anxiety over completing NAPLAN and that parents are wanting to not send their children to school because of it. I think as a teacher, this will make me place less emphasis on it being a test those students within my class and rather just try and aide them to gain the best understanding of the concepts needed without placing them under duress.

Students learning is definitely shaped through the use of assessment, it enables teachers to tailor learning for each individual based on where they are at in their development. My professional stance on assessment is that is necessary in order to provide the best education possible for every student.

Standardised testing has pros and cons and it can be argued either way, depending on your stand point. However, overall standardised testing allows schools to then communicate about what’s working for them and if need be demonstrate that to other schools. The TIMSS is a prime example of how it does not have to be only within Australia, but all over the world. There needs to be open communication about what works in education, as the most important thing is ensuring that children are developing and gaining the best education possible for them. This can’t be used on its own though and needs to be used in conjunction with all the other testing done throughout the year to determine where a child is at academically and how they can reach their next goal successfully.

Case Study: While on placement my mentor teacher provided the whole school assessment schedule for term one, as seen in photo A above; it gave a break down of what was expected from each year. It also demonstrated the weekly breakdown of the assessment and reporting that was required and then the ongoing, that was needed to be done throughout the term. This was sent to all the teachers across the school. The ‘My School’ website (ACARA) states that in 2018, the year 3’s for this school were above the expected standard and the year 5’s were substantially above. These results go hand in hand with the fact that ongoing teachers are doing testing on reading and writing and completing checklists for mathematics.

The writing portfolio seen in picture B , demonstrates that each time the children are looking at different texts in order to expand their horizons and create a deeper understanding of all types of texts, not just a select few. This will assist when it comes time to complete NAPLAN testing and will assist children in feeling at ease as it’s something they’ve already done. It gives results by the use of ‘I can’ statements. Pictures C and D both demonstrate the outcome of a readers running records, these are used to determine the readers level of understanding and accuracy of the text they are reading and therefore determiner what language conventions they need to work on. The learning goals they then come up with will go hand in hand with this and aim to increase the students reading ability. The final two photos (E & F) are an example of what the report looks like for this school. The school report as seen in picture F, shows clearly where the child was at their last report and where they are now, it shows the improvements and allows for parents to see their child’s development across the timeframe. The assessments that are done throughout the term are used to determine how much a child has improved based on their results.

Assessment Policy:

After viewing both policies side by side, there were many similarities in the way they approached assessment and reporting. Both policies were highly driven by classroom teachers both designing and implementing these assessments and then following on by reporting the information found from them to all the necessary parties.

I found it most interesting that the classroom teachers were so heavily relied on to create the assessments and although you assume that most would be working in conjunction with a team, it does not always work out that way. Then you have to ask the question, how do you ensure that all students are being tested in the same way and on the same content?

Assessment policies are used within schools to ensure that every child is given the best opportunity to succeed. Used correctly, these policies both enable teachers to ensure that the children within their class are fully comprehending the unit of work before moving forward. It is truly about creating a foundation for students to build on in future years. The assessment policies  allow for ‘teachers [to] plan assessment strategies when developing teaching programs and will also make additional assessment judgements in the course of teaching and learning’ (Department of Education NSW 2018). It is imperative that classroom teachers are involved in the design, or selection process of assessment as they are the ones that implement them to their students. ‘Teachers use assessment to inform instructional decisions, motivate and reward students, assign grades, and report student progress to families’ (National Research Council 2002, p. 62). Classroom teachers are also the ones who ‘know students and how they learn’ (AITSL 2017, standard 1) and therefore their voices are so heavily valued within this process, with the Department of Education (2019) leaving the principals to ‘approve the final content of the school based assessment and reporting plan’.

While both policies are quite similar, the New South Wales policy goes into a lot more detail about which jobs are delegated to which people and how the policy is implemented. The Western Australian policy, seems to lack a lot of detail and therefore may make it difficult to understand if it is not unpacked when originally hired in this state. It is quite unique that the New South Wales policies specifically specifies that teachers will ‘use a variety of appropriate assessments for judging the student achievement’ (Department of Education NSW 2018), it’s unique because it allows the teacher to make judgement calls based on their knowledge of students. The cookie cutter approach towards assessment and education does not work for all students and therefore, sometimes teachers need to make adjustments and alternations to reflect this.

External Standardised testing: For this section, I will be focusing on NAPLAN and TIMSS and how these influence the teaching that occurs within schools. These are both standardised tests that are issued to children within education settings. They are given across the board, regardless of the differing needs of students. The comparison of the two are listed within the table above, these represent two different standardised tests both used within Australia. ‘International research suggests that high-stakes testing in schools can potentially have a negative impact on the pedagogy of teachers in countries that use this method of assessment’ (Thompson & Harbaugh 2012, p. 3). The reason for this is because teachers feel as though they need to alter their teaching style in order to suit the tests. ‘Often the pressure to do well manifest as a return of teacher-centred pedagogies have a negative impact on student creativity and high-order thinking skills (2012, p. 4). The use of standardised testing, with particular reference to NAPLAN is used primarily to show ‘student progress and the effectiveness of teaching strategies, identifying student needs and reporting student progress’ (Harrington 2019). However, it is also noted that NAPLAN and the use of the My School website, that displays schools NAPLAN data has ‘generated much concern about the uses to which NAPLAN data is put, and the negative effects on students and schools’ (2019). The type of standardised testing creates anxiety for both students and their families and teachers to ensure they’ve taught  all content that could possibly be on the test. ‘When anxiety is taken to be concerned about producing a good performance, a small amount of it is often regarded as positive (i.e. performance enhancing), but it is regarded as negative emotion when associated with fear an avoidance’ (Marsh 2019). However, the test also allows for schools to begin to acknowledge that changes may need to be made to their teachings and begin to implement those. Moreover, the TIMSS has a the dual purpose of ‘studying the use and effects of instructional practices’ (Eriksson, Helenius, Ryve 2018, p. 15). They allow for ‘assessment to evaluate, understand and improve school systems’ (2018, p. 15) on an international scale and therefore presents the ability to use those to assist countries who are at the lower end of the scale with their test scores, with teaching methods to improve them the next time round.  Standardised testing leaves no real choice but to teach to the curriculum, rather than the students individual needs. It creates a lot of anxiety for all stakeholders and therefore seems to have more negative impacts than positive on the way students learn. Although in saying that, it provides opportunity to see where children, and consequently your teaching is at in relation to the rest of the state, country or those countries taking the test. I believe they have a time and a place to be implemented, however there needs to be slightly more flexibility in the way they are administered.