Valuing teacher judgement — curriculum assessment and reporting

1. Curriculum

Conference is concerned about the potential workload implications of such significant syllabus change which follows so closely behind massive changes to the stage 6 curriculum and the Higher School Certificate.

Conference calls for the provision of appropriate support materials and professional development to assist teachers prepare for the implementation of the new syllabuses. Conference expresses its dismay and condemnation of the DET restructure which reduces the number of specialist curriculum personnel available to support schools in implementing the changes, at a time of massive curriculum change.

2. Assessment and reporting

• Public schools are responsible to the community of New South Wales, not to the marketplace.
• Public schools concern themselves with the education and development (academic, social and cultural) of the whole child.
• The curriculum must be geared toward learning for life and the needs of a multicultural democracy, promoting social justice for all.
• Public schools must be adequately resourced to ensure equal opportunity in the interest of achieving an equality of learning outcomes for all students.
• Change must centre on the classroom and the needs of students.
• Good teachers are essential to good schools.
• Change must involve collaboration among educators, parents, and the community.

Assessment

Authentic assessment for the primary purpose of improving student learning must rest on foundations of high-quality schooling: an understanding of how student learning takes place, collaborative planning and evaluation in consultation with local school communities, adequate learning resources, quality teachers, school structures and practices that support the learning needs of all students.

Authentic assessment must be integrated with, not separate from, curriculum and classroom experiences. Assessment relies on demonstrated performance during real, not contrived, activities, for example, real reading and writing activities rather than only skills testing. In particular, schools need to ensure the development of modes of teaching and learning that foster understanding of meaningful content and encourage students' positive engagement with the world.

Authentic assessment works on a continuum. The continuum is, in essence, the teaching learning cycle, which provides purpose, context and content for assessment. Teachers will rely on a range of assessment activities. These may include structured and impromptu observations some of which may be recorded and filed; formal and informal discussions/interviews; collections of students' work which are not contrived for the purpose; use of extended projects, performances, and exhibitions; performance or practical exams; and various forms of short-answer testing. An additional objective of assessment is that students learn to reflect on and evaluate their own work.

Following the continuum from individual to societal interests, evaluation should be both "self-referenced" and "standards-referenced". Authentic assessment systems allow students multiple ways to demonstrate their learning.

Assessment must address what students can do independently and what they can demonstrate with assistance, because the latter shows the direction of their growth.

The process of assessment is not just focused on evaluating student accomplishment. Rather, the heart of assessment is a continuing flow in which the teacher (in collaboration with the student) uses information to guide the next steps in learning.

Teacher-driven professional development and restructuring of school practices are needed for effective assessment. Assessment is an essential component of the teacher's role. Because teachers can make maximal use of assessment results, the teacher is the primary assessor.

There must be a broad range of assessment procedures available to teachers, counsellors and schools to ensure that children who are identified as having learning difficulties can be diagnosed as early as possible so that appropriate resources can be delivered to meet the needs of these students immediately.

Reporting

A distinction should be made between information which is useful for teachers in developing learning/remediation programs, and information which is useful to and comprehensible for parents. As such, reports to parents need to be streamlined and convey essential information.

Formative reporting and its diagnostic value can support the teaching and learning process and provide further information for individual students and their parents.

3. The Board of Studies

Annual Conference reiterates the Federation's policy position that the Office of the Board of Studies should be disbanded and that the DET should reassume responsibility for syllabus development, implementation and professional support. This was a key recommendation of the Vinson Inquiry.

The DET's release of the discussion document on pedagogy "Quality Teaching in NSW Public Schools" highlights the important role that the DET must play in curriculum development and support for teachers' work. Attempts by DET to impose a pedagogical framework on a dysfunctional model of curriculum development, as is currently the case in New South Wales, is bound to fail. The NSW Teachers Federation will respond to this discussion document and release its submission to schools.

The Federation Executive and Senior Officers are to continue to pursue Federation policy on this issue. Material will be provided to schools and in Education explaining the Federation's position on these issues.

4. The mass testing agenda

The push for mass, statewide testing regimes worldwide is part of the economic rationalist attempt to shape a narrow, utilitarian, marketised and impoverished agenda for education. Thus, it has its origins in sources external to education policy makers and teachers. Corporate interests and conservative politicians have been its most assiduous advocates, accompanying their demands with baseless moral panic about alleged "falling standards" in education. They have found it a convenient device for scapegoating teachers in order to divert attention from the deficiencies of Government and administration in providing proper resources and policies for schools and teachers. Some education policy makers, despite their better instincts, have attempted to provide a rationale for mass, statewide tests.

In NSW the mass, statewide testing agenda was introduced under the discredited Metherell regime but was supported and later extended by the Carr-led Labor Party in opposition and government.

The test "industry" which has been spawned as a result of the introduction of mass, statewide testing has had the effect of taking the work of evaluation of teaching and learning away from the professionals most capable of and responsible for it.

The Federation's objections to mass, statewide testing regimes are based on the following:

• A mass, statewide test is not an accurate measure of the total of students' understandings, skills and general abilities.
• Measurable outcomes may be the least significant results of learning. It's easier to quantify how many semicolons are used correctly in an essay than how many wonderful ideas it contains. Those who have an obsession with "specific, measurable standards" end up dumbing down the process of learning. Educators aim to nurture intrinsic motivation and a desire for intellectual exploration.
• Mass, statewide testing advocates see testing essentially as an enforcement mechanism. This is an insulting view of educators, and is based on an assumption that teachers cannot be trusted.
• Mass, statewide tests necessarily create failure. Despite the rhetoric of its advocates, this form of testing is not about helping all children to become better learners. It is, in fact, a device for artificially categorising, ranking and labelling students, school communities and schooling systems.
• The inevitable pressure to raise scores means that there is less time to actively engage students' minds through in-depth study of issues, hands-on experiences and inquiry which promote a genuine passion for learning.
• Mass, statewide tests tend to measure the temporary acquisition of facts and skills. This promotes a reliance on direct-instruction techniques and endless practice tests, including the skill of test taking itself, rather than genuine understanding. Skills-based instruction tends to foster low-level uniformity and subvert academic potential. The quality of learning declines most for those who have least motivation.
• Annual reports do not allow a balance of reporting of all aspects of student learning and reflect a bias towards the reporting of mass, statewide test results.
• Mass, statewide tests inevitably reflect social and cultural biases. The questions require a set of knowledge, skills and understandings more likely to be possessed by children from certain cultural backgrounds and therefore alienate a significant proportion of our students.
• The inequities of such tests are exacerbated by socio-economic factors. Affluent families have more access to a better-resourced environment; for example, often purchasing commercially produced materials and hiring tutors.

Consolidated policy statement on testing

Mass, statewide testing

2. Federation supports the judgement of teachers as professional educators regarding the appropriate application and use of any/all testing instruments.

3. The continuing obsession of the Government and DET with mass, statewide testing schemes is also having an effect on teacher workload through pressure on teachers to 'teach to the test' by using results of these tests to judge teachers and schools.

4. The NSW Teachers Federation continues to condemn the Ministerial Council for Education, Employment, Training, and Youth Affairs' (MCEETYA') decision to assess all children in year 3 and year 5 across Australia in literacy and numeracy against a national standard. This has arisen from the ideological obsession with mass, statewide testing of various politicians and other right-wing ideologies. It has little to do with and, in fact, is counterproductive to the stated purpose of the exercise -- the lifting of literacy and numeracy standards.

5. Notwithstanding our general opposition to mass, statewide tests, while they exist, the Federation calls for the enforcement of the regulation in the Education Act pertaining to mass, statewide results that guarantees the confidentiality of these test results and makes illegal the provision of data that would allow for the ranking or comparison of results between particular schools. Further, the regulations attached to the Education Act affecting the provision of test result data should be made available to all schools by the DET.

6. Federation retains its opposition to Annual School Reports which:

i. compare school results with state averages and results
ii. refer to the percentages and/or amounts of students operating in particular bands iii. allege "value added" effect of programs through comparison of results at different grade levels.
7. The DET has an inclination to announce new testing schemes as "on trial" but then, before any evaluation is made, announce them as mandatory the following year without any release of information to demonstrate that the trial has been properly evaluated with the involvement of education practitioners.

8. The allocation of resources to schools only on the basis of test data is condemned as educationally unsound and open to forms of abuse. It fails to take into account the professional judgement of teachers or the ever-changing needs of schools that can occur on a daily basis.

9. The Federation is critical of the selective high schools and 'Opportunity C' tests for the following reasons:

a) they re-affirm at the end of stages 2 and 3 of primary school that the major systemic rewards go to those who achieve at the theoretical/symbolic end of knowledge. The status of this knowledge is also re-enforced in the public mind. Thus we have a restatement of the view that "bright" children are good in a very narrow range of achievement
b) they re-establish a narrow view of "intelligence", a view which has not only been challenged in the literature, but is being substantially challenged within our schools
c) they also reflect a narrow view of achievement, of talent, and of giftedness. These concepts tend to then be removed from the comprehensive schools, which are seen as unable to deal not only with exceptional children, but also with children whose achievement is not much more than above average.
d) they construct a social cachet around narrow forms of achievement. The fact that a substantial proportion of the whole 6th grade cohort will sit for the selective high school test, despite the fact that the vast majority will not be successful, demonstrates the belief that families can gain status from their child's success in such a procedure.

The School Certificate

However, there is no valid reason to move beyond school assessment processes at this point of schooling. Indeed, with the aim of most educational theory and practice being to retain at least 90 per cent of students beyond year 10, the notion of the School Certificate as a publicly examined exit credential needs to be abandoned, and replaced with a "benchmark to proceed" award organically emanating from school based assessment.

The continuing prospect of millions of dollars being spent to devise and mark external School Certificate tests is not only costly, but a constriction upon innovative and creative teaching/learning in stages 4 and 5 schooling. Currently this situation is acting adversely upon student enjoyment of the processes of learning, and this is reflected in growing dissatisfaction with schooling.

Accordingly, the Federation's position is that any year 10 credential should have the following characteristics:

1. It should be school assessed and delivered.

2. It should not be seen as an exit credential, but as an award which fits into the general reporting and award provisions of the school.

3. It should have the capacity to report on student achievement over time, and be a record of progress as well as achievement.

4. It should be able to recognise achievement in areas of the school's life other than that involved in school teaching syllabuses.

The question of moderation of these results is one which could usefully exercise the minds of policy makers and there are a number of processes which could be used -- from consensus-moderation to exemplars and item banks. Federation would not support any statistically moderated process.

Such a year 10 credential could easily be issued by the DET on advice from schools if that was considered appropriate.

Federation believes that statewide standards of compatibility could be maintained through appropriate training and development to allow all practising teachers to have a common understanding of outcomes requirements for each syllabus.

Additionally, teachers at each school could be informed via statewide "standards packages" from samples drawn from schools. Also, district-wide meetings of teachers from common subject areas, under the auspices of training and development support, should take place to clarify outcomes achievement at a local level.

The Higher School Certificate

To this end, Federation believes that:

1. The HSC should be retained as the single exit credential for all students at the end of the senior post-compulsory school year.

2. Current curricula in a range of syllabus areas are not inclusive of the full range of students and may permanently damage the educational opportunities of students from disadvantaged communities. The notion that "one size fits all" is setting up many students to "fail". Courses such as Fundamentals of English and Maths in Practice must be given full subject/course status and provided as genuine options in the HSC curriculum. All courses commenced in year 11 must have curriculum guarantee of full delivery in terms of face to face teaching for the HSC.

3. The HSC should continue to be the primary source of information on entry to tertiary education. Universities should be encouraged to develop supplementary and complementary methods of differentiation between students such as interviews and portfolios, and not rely totally on the UAI. However, Federation remains opposed to separate university entrance examinations.

4. Appropriate arrangements must be made to ensure recognition of all courses, including newly developed Board courses, pre vocational courses, and employment related competencies within the framework of the HSC.

However, Federation reiterates its demand that VET (et al) arrangements establish guidelines, which reduce teacher workload rather than expand it.

Action

2. In ongoing negotiations around annual school reports the Federation will seek to achieve its policy in relation to the reporting of test performance data.

3. The Federation will distribute further advice to schools explaining the rationale for our position on reporting of test performance data.

4. The Federation will oppose the use of levels of achievement in assessment in primary education. This opposition will be made clear to the Minister, the Board of Studies and our members, prior to any further consultation with teachers by the Office of the Board of Studies.

5. Should the Director-General or his/her agents attempt to force or pressure schools to report on comparative data between students or between schools, the Federation Council will revisit the matter of placing a ban or taking industrial action against the various mass, statewide tests. The Federation is alarmed by the DET's current proposal for the posting of annual school reports onto the Internet. This will lead to a comparison of schools based on statewide assessment data. If schools are pressured to report on statewide testing results in annual school reports, that are to be subsequently posted onto the internet, the Federation will ban production of the Annual School Reports.

6. The Federation will continue to seek the removal of references to the supervision and management of statewide tests such as the Basic Skills Tests and English Language and Literacy Assessment (ELLA) tests from the award. However, while such references remain, consideration will be given to pursuing the matter of award breaches with DET in cases where mass, statewide tests are used in ways which breach the protocols, such as use of test data to harass teachers and schools.

7. If the NSW Government (and its agencies) increases the scope of the Basic Skills Tests (BST) and/or modifies the BST or BST data used to meet the Federal Government's agenda of national literacy testing, and/or allows the Federal Government to publish, compare or otherwise misuse the data garnered from the BST, ELLA or other programs, the NSW Teachers Federation will contact teacher unions in the other states and territories with a view to national action against that agenda. Any bans imposed through such action will remain in place until such time as the NSW and Federal Governments withdraw the expansion of the tests and comply with the negotiated protocols established in 1997. This should include the development of national protocols.

8. The use of technology to implement assessment and reporting must be in line with the guidelines set out in the Federation's policy "Information and Communication Technology in Education". DET must provide adequate training, resources and ongoing support in all areas of assessment and reporting where they require teachers to use technology.

9. Computing Skills Assessments -- Federation calls for the full establishment of facilities, training and development for teachers, and adequate release time and systems support prior to any computing skills assessments being implemented. Where such resourcing has not been provided, the Federation will support members who, as a consequence, decline to teach and assess computing skills embedded in non-computing courses. Under no circumstances should such assessments become mandatory before 2006 at the earliest.

10. Federation calls on a moratorium on the expansion of the trial of electronic online computer skills tests in primary schools. We call on the DET to release the results of the trial so far and to negotiate with the NSW Teachers Federation for the conduct of an education impact statement. The DET must put in place the appropriate resourcing and teacher training. Federation is opposed to the reporting of results of statewide technology tests in the annual school reports. Federation asserts that the resources allocated to the production, administration and working of such statewide tests would be better spent on the support of technology teaching in schools.

11. Federation should be part of the evaluation of trials. This should occur prior to any broadening of these tests.

12. Federation will campaign for a substantial increase in the number of staff development days, that is week 1, term 1 to be pupil free. There is to be no change in teacher holidays.

13. The Federation's Assessment and Reporting Committee should continue to function for the remainder of 2003 and provide advice to the Federation executive on:

a) strategies to achieve the Federation's policy position on the use of test performance data in Annual School Reports
b) the Federation's response to the outcomes of the Eltis evaluation.

Executive should consider any ongoing role for the Assessment and Reporting Committee at the start of 2004 as part of the regular process of determining Federation committees to be elected.

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Last Modified: 15 Nov 2005