The primary purpose of assessment is to enhance learning and enable the reporting of student's achievement. The Curriculum Framework (1998) outlines five essential principles of assessment needed to ensure that the practices used by teachers are valid, educative, explicit, fair and comprehensive.
Whether at the level of the classroom, school or system, assessment information should enable judgements to be made about students' progress towards the desired outcomes in a way that is fair and contributes to continued learning.
Thus, assessment information should enable teachers and students to know what students can do assisted and what they can do unassisted and what they can do when working in groups and when working alone. It should enable them to distinguish between work that is original and non-routine and work that is reproductive or memorised.
Fair assessment is based on criteria which are valid and transparent and applied with consistency and without discrimination. These in turn require an assessment regime based upon multiple kinds and sources of evidence. Assessment is likely to enhance learning when the criteria are valid and explicit and when the assessment activities are themselves educative. (Curriculum Framework, p 37, 1998)
When making judgements about the outcomes of gifted and talented students, teachers should use the Outcomes and Standards Framework as a guide, as some students will be working at higher levels than their phase of development peers.
Schools should ensure that they collect relevant data at regular intervals to ensure that:
The following questions are provided to assist schools monitor their planning processes and student outcomes:
From the review of these data, the most appropriate programs for individual students can be planned.
A range of checklists is available for teachers to select and adjust accordingly.
The following Department of Education and Training (WA) sites provide support for teachers making judgements about student work.
For further information on the requirements at a school, district and central level refer to The Gifted and Talented Policy and supporting Guidelines.
These School and System Performance directorate sites provide information about :
Monitoring Standards in Education (MSE)
A cornerstone of the Department's operations is to ensure quality education provision to all students, irrespective of their background or geographical location. This site provides information about the Random Sample Assessment Program.
Western Australian Numeracy and Literacy Assessment (WALNA)
WALNA is a curriculum-based assessment that is criterion-referenced and tests students' knowledge and skills in numeracy, reading, spelling and writing. The WALNA test is administered annually to students in years 3, 5 and 7.
Curriculum Council (Western Australia)
The Curriculum Council sets curriculum policy directions for kindergarten to year 12 schooling in Western Australia
Curriculum Improvement Program
This Curriculum Directorate site includes links to the Outcomes and Standards Framework;
Focusing on Outcomes: Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting, Curriculum Improvement Program - Phase 2 and the WA School Standards and Reporting preview package.