Student assessment has been identified in research from the Centre for Education Statistics and Evaluation (CESE) as one of eight key drivers for improving student academic outcomes.
Relieving Executive Director of CESE, Sally Egan said the addition of assessment as a theme in the popular What Works Best research from CESE was part of an update on the 2014 research, which also included a new teacher toolkit.
“What Works Best is our flagship program,” Ms Egan said.
“It’s our evidence-base to support our teachers to know and understand the research in action,” she said.
“This year the research had been updated to include the theme assessment adding to the list of high expectations, collaboration, explicit teaching, effective feedback, use of data to inform practice, classroom management and wellbeing.”
Ms Egan said assessment was an ongoing part of the learning and teaching cycle and was embedded in everyday practices in a classroom.
She said “great teachers” had always used ongoing assessment to determine where students were, but it was only now being recognised as ‘key’.
“The toolkit provides teachers with key questions that enable them to think about new practices they can develop, and importantly, discontinue practices that may not be working for their students,” she said.
Ms Egan said the research around the importance of high expectations in driving success was essential for parents to also understand.
“We know teachers hold high expectations of their students when they know their students well and value them as learners and understand how to support their learning,” she said.
“Parents should be really aware of that and what that sounds like when they talk to their children about their learning.”
She encouraged parents to engage in conversations about the feedback their children received, and how they could assist with next steps in their learning trajectory.
