Professor Cooney reports on assessment
WENDY CURRIE reports on the findings of a review of the statewide assessment program.
A review of the statewide assessment program in NSW, underway for the past 18 months, has recommended reform of the School Certificate, a position which the Federation fully supports. Yet the context in which the report was produced meant that questioning the national testing agenda was outside its terms of reference and therefore, the report works from the premise that this agenda will proceed.
In late January, Education Minister Carmel Tebbutt released the final report of Professor George Cooney's review, conducted in the context of the new national assessment requirements.
The national context involves regulations attached to the Commonwealth schools funding legislation that goes by the outrageous title of the Schools Assistance (Learning Together -- Achievement Through Choice and Opportunity) Act 2004. These are the same regulations that contain the requirements about student reports.
States are to implement a range of common national tests in years 3, 5, 7, and 9, necessitating that the review identify how the state and new national systems might fit together.
Federation rejects any mass standardised testing because it serves no educational value, and in particular rejects any such tests that are not curriculum based and have no diagnostic purpose.
In identifying the link between curriculum, pedagogy, assessment and reporting Professor Cooney's report recommended "that implementation of the national curriculum, assessment and reporting agenda be monitored closely to ensure coherence of curriculum, assessment and reporting" and contains some recommendations aimed at ameliorating some of the issues surrounding this agenda.
Federation welcomes the report's call for greater support for teachers, but there is a real danger of the national testing regime replacing reliable and authentic assessment against NSW curriculum and standards. These standards must not be diminished by a national obsession with testing.
Professor Cooney's recommendation that reporting national tests results on a common scale be delayed for three years until further research is conducted should be applauded. That research should be broad based, rigorous, reliable and transparent. To date, the Federal Government has not supported any of its impositions on state based education with valid research. It's time they started.
It was, however, the report's recommendations about the School Certificate and the Higher School Certificate that drew media attention.
School Certificate
The recommendation had two parts:
"That the role of the School Certificate as an exit credential be reviewed in the first half of 2007, with consideration given to a credential being presented at the time at which a students leaves school and that contains a cumulative record of achievement" and "that the review include consideration of the role of the current Year 10 examinations".
Professor Cooney noted that no submissions advocated retention of the School Certificate as it now exists. For its part, Federation's submission recommended: "that following consultation with key stakeholders, a Ministerial options paper on reform of the School Certificate should be produced. There should then be a full process of public consultation about the nature of any potential successor 'credential' which may replace the School Certificate."
Higher School Certificate
Professor Cooney recommends an evaluation of the performance band descriptors "against current syllabus outcomes and the range of student achievement in HSC examinations since 2001". Federation has always held the view that these be continually reviewed to maintain their reliability.
The union, however, rejects Professor Cooney's recommendation "that the conditions for the award of the HSC credential be reviewed, taking into consideration whether a minimum level of performance is required for award of the credential". Equity considerations mean that a student who has made a serious attempt to complete all the current requirements of the HSC, including school-based assessment tasks, deserve to be awarded the credential. As we have always said, the HSC serves a far broader purpose than merely an entry ticket to tertiary studies.
Professor Cooney's report is available on the Department of Education and Training's website https://www.det.nsw.edu.au/.
Wendy Currie is a Research Officer.
For further information
February 2007 contents
|
Subscribe
