Assessment

In the third article in a series related to ACER’s Communication Student Learning Progress project, Dr Hilary Hollingsworth and Jonathan Heard highlight some of the observations that they’ve made in their early analysis of teacher comments on school reports.

Dr Lyn Sharratt explores three practical learning, teaching and leading approaches – writing to improve critical literacy skills, bump-it-up walls, and collaborative assessment of student work – that each support teachers’ focus on creating critically literate graduates.

In a fortnightly series, Teacher has been taking a closer look at some of the Gonski recommendations and highlighting existing work happening in Australian schools. This final instalment focuses on assessment of student learning.

In the second article in a series related to ACER’s Communication Student Learning Progress project, Jonathan Heard and Dr Hilary Hollingsworth examine recent and current reporting trends and practices in schools, and the growing use of digital systems and tools.

Australian 15-year-olds were asked about their sense of belonging at school for the most recent Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) study. Here, we look at some of the Australian results and how they compare with other countries.

This year, for the first time, the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) will assess global competence. In his latest Teacher column, OECD Director for Education and Skills Andreas Schleicher discusses what the assessment entails.

Teachers are often encouraged to take up opportunities to mark external exams or tests. There is extra money to be earned, but they are also often told that it is good professional development. But what do people mean when they say that, and what parts of your professional practice does marking help to develop?

In the first of a series of articles on how schools communicate student learning progress, Dr Hilary Hollingsworth and Jonathan Heard examine some of the recent history of reporting in Australian schools and highlight some of the competing forces that have influenced current practices in student reporting.

Research shows that in Australia the most advanced 10 per cent of students in a year level are about five to six years ahead of the least advanced 10 per cent. This infographic shows approximate distributions of students in NAPLAN Reading.

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, Professor Geoff Masters AO writes in his latest Teacher column.