OECD Reviews of Evaluation and Assessment in Education _Australia

This publication is the report from the OECD International Review Team. It provides, from an international perspective, an independent analysis of major issues facing the school evaluation and assessment framework in Australia, current policy initiatives, and possible future approaches.

The report aims to

• provide insights and advice to the Australian education authorities;
• help other OECD countries understand the Australian approach; and
• provide input for the final comparative report of the project.

It concluded that while the overall evaluation and assessment framework appears as highly sophisticated and well conceptualised, especially at its top level (national and systemic levels), there is a less clear articulation of ways for the national agenda to generate improvements in classroom practice through the assessment and evaluation procedures which are closer to the place of learning.

It defined Australia's key challenges in terms of

• striking the right balance between nationally-dictated policies and ability to meet local needs
• improved the integration of the non-governmental sector
• establishing strategies to strengthen the linkages to classroom practice.

A major step in this direction would be a national reflection about the nature and purpose of evaluation components such as school evaluation, teacher appraisal and student formative assessment within the overall education reform strategy and the best approaches for these evaluation components to improve classroom practices.

The report also notes that

• The current prominence of NAPLAN within the student assessment framework requires particular care about not reducing the importance of teacher-based assessment. Another area of priority is NAPLAN's alignment with the Australian Curriculum and the extent to which NAPLAN is balanced in its representation of the depth and breadth of intended student learning goals.
• While teachers benefit from a high degree of trust and extensive autonomy, they have few opportunities for professional feedback.
• Teacher appraisal as part of regular performance management processes is also of variable quality.
• The teaching profession would benefit from the alignment of teaching standards with a competency-based career structure for teachers. This would strengthen the incentive for teachers to improve their competencies, and reinforce the matching between teachers' levels of competence and the tasks that need to be performed in schools to improve student learning.

The report argued that teacher registration should be conceived as career-progression evaluation:

• holding teachers accountable for their practice,
• determining advancement in the career, and
• informing the professional development plan of the teacher.

In regard to student learning outcomes the report noted that the variation in performance between high- and low-performing students in Australia was higher than the OECD average in reading and science and similar to that found for the OECD as a whole in mathematics in PISA 2009 (Thomson et al., 2011). In reading literacy, the gap between students in the highest and lowest socio-economic quartile is equivalent to more than one proficiency level or almost three full years of schooling (Thomson et al., 2011).

The performance of Indigenous students is considerably below the Australian average. For instance, Indigenous students scored 82 points lower, on average, than non-Indigenous students in reading literacy - this difference equates to more than one proficiency level or more than two full years of schooling (Thomson et al. 2011).

Evaluation and assessment frameworks have no value if they do not lead to the improvement of classroom practice and student learning, and therefore securing effective links to classroom practice is one of the most critical points in designing the evaluation and assessment framework.

This includes a focus on

• ensuring teaching standards are aligned with student learning objectives;
• building teacher capacity for student formative assessment;
• assuring that school-based developmental teacher appraisal is aligned with student learning objectives; and
• strengthening teachers' ability to assess against A-E standards.

The national education agenda has placed considerable investment in establishing national standards, national testing and reporting requirements while it provides considerably less direction and strategy on how to achieve the improvement function of evaluation and assessment.

While transparency of information and high-quality data are essential for a well-functioning evaluation and assessment system, there has been comparatively less focus on articulating how the existing data and information should be used for improvement and on ensuring that school agents have the capacity to use the data and feedback made available to them in order to improve their practices.

To read the full report go to http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/1/44/48519807.pdf