Assessment

We know that early literacy development is not uniform. Understanding students’ strengths and identifying gaps to plan for the next steps, including targeted support where needed – and doing this as early as possible – is a challenge for teachers. A new assessment program from ACER aims to spot literacy difficulties before children fall behind and these gaps widen.

AI tools are becoming more embedded in students’ lives. At Teacher, we know this is an area where educators are seeking practical support and so this month, we’ve published a range of articles to help. In today’s Teacher Staffroom episode, I’ll take you through the key highlights, along with a few extra pieces you won’t want to miss.

EDUtech is one of the largest and most prominent education and technology events on our calendar for 2026. Over 2 days last week, Teacher magazine’s Rebecca Vukovic and Dominique Beech were there in Sydney for the event, and in today’s podcast special they share their reflections on the sessions they attended, as well as other conference highlights. 

EDUtech has just wrapped up for 2026, and the Teacher team were in Sydney for the 2-day conference to have conversations with the education community and hear from both local and international speakers. Read our insights here.

Last month, the OECD released findings from the 2025 International Early Learning and Child Well-being Study (IELS). In today's episode, Dr Dan Cloney, Senior Research Fellow at ACER and Lead Researcher for IELS, unpacks some of the key findings from the study, explores what made the assessment design unique, and discusses why it's so important to ensure every child arrives at school with the strongest possible foundations.

In assessment, AI tools offer new possibilities for feedback while also raising important questions about quality, accuracy, teacher oversight and, crucially, whether the feedback improves the learner, not just the piece of work they’ve been tasked with completing.

We know our audience are always keen to hear from experts in the education field. In this episode of Teacher Staffroom, we bring you our latest updates from Teacher columnists, important research updates, and more. 

In this podcast special, Dominique Beech sits down with Dr Dan Edwards, Acting Head of ACER's Student Learning and Progress Division, to talk about the future of assessment. He shares his insights on how assessment can support students at key transition points across K-12, the impact of AI, and more. 

Media and Artificial Intelligence Literacy (MAIL) has been announced as the innovative domain for PISA 2029. The OECD has already released the first draft framework, offering an early understanding of how media literacy and AI literacy intersect and link to other curriculum areas, the key concepts and big ideas, and how to nurture the related competences.

At Al-Taqwa College, a school of more than 2,700 students from prep to year 12, managing data and assessment is a significant undertaking. In today’s article, Assistant Head of Curriculum, Noorun Nisa Abdul Wahid shares how staff collect data, what they do to make sense of it, and how it informs curriculum design, assessment and teaching across the whole school.