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Dept. of Education > Office for Educational Review >
Monitoring > History
Monitoring
A Historical Perspective
| 1975 |
ACER (Australian Council for Educational Research) run a national testing program. 10 year olds (10R & 10N) and 14 year olds (14R &14N). intention |
| 1976 – 1979 |
Because of Tasmania’s poor performance in the 1975 testing Tasmanian Education Department elects to test annually, although only two of the four tests are administered each year. Eg. 10R and 14N one year, 10N and 14R the next. |
| 1980 |
ACER run a follow up to the 1975 national testing program, i.e. 10R, 10N, 14R and 14N. |
| 1981 |
Two tests administered - 10R and 14N |
| 1982 – 1994 |
Annual testing of 10R, 10N, 14R and 14N continues, although, for logistical reasons, only one of the four tests is administered each year, i.e. testing continues on a four year cycle. |
| 1995 |
Hiatus while the department takes stock of its testing
program. |
| 1996 |
DART tests administered to year 5 cohort. ACER used as consultants. Note: change from age-based to year (grade)-based testing. |
| 1997 |
Year 9 Numeracy – Assessment Research Centre (ARC), University of Melbourne. |
| 1998 |
Year 3 and 7 Literacy and Numeracy tests (i.e. four tests in all) OER in conjunction with ARC, University of Melbourne. Results returned to schools in hardcopy. |
| 1999 |
Year 3 and 5 Literacy (i.e. two tests)– developed and administered by OER. Results returned to schools in hardcopy. |
| 2000 |
Year 3, 5 and 7 Literacy and Numeracy (i.e. six tests) – administered, marked, scanned (TASSAB) and results prepared (OER). Results delivered via a secure internet site (developed by the department’s Information Management Branch). |
| 2001 |
Year 3, 5 and 7 Literacy and Numeracy (i.e. six tests)
Recognised that Tasmania does not currently have the capacity to produce and mark 6 tests every year. As a consequence testing was done in conjunction with the Western Australian Department of Education and its contractor ETC (Educational Testing Centre – University of NSW). Results delivered by secure internet as in 2000. |
| 2002 |
Year 3, 5 and 7 Literacy and Numeracy (i.e.
six tests) in conjunction with the Western Australian Department of
Education.
Year 9 Literacy and Numeracy (i.e. two tests) – developed, administered,
marked and analysed by OER. Testing of year 9 will now allow for further
value-added measured to be calculated (i.e. year 7 to 9). |
Recent developments in the monitoring program
The range of purposes for the monitoring test program has broadened in recent years.
When the Department commenced its own full-cohort literacy and numeracy monitoring testing in 1976, the principal purpose was to track longitudinal trends in standards, in order to gauge the effectiveness of the system-level policies and programs for literacy and numeracy teaching. This purpose has retained its importance to the Department. While individual student results have always been returned to schools, they were not used for accountability purposes during the first two decades of the program.
Parallel developments over the last five years have increased the stakes of the testing for a range of parties in the education system, and have given the program important new purposes. One development was the Federal Government’s initiative in establishing the national literacy and numeracy benchmarks and its subsequent requirement of the states to provide ‘hard’, reliable and comparable data on the benchmark-related literacy and numeracy performance of their students. Another development was the initiative taken by the Department to ensure school accountability through the Assisted School Self Review and—more recently—School Improvement Review processes, which have required schools to review and to report student performance data.
During the past decade, the Department has improved its analysis of monitoring-test data. Prior to 1995, Classical Test Theory (CTT) was used to analyse test results. In all Australian states and territories, CTT has been replaced by Rasch analysis, which provides a sounder measurement underpinning, and is a key requirement for national benchmarking. Parallel to improved educational measurement has been improved statistical analysis: instead of analysing data using univariate statistics, results from recent monitoring tests have been analysed using multilevel, multivariate statistical methods, including multilevel structural equation modelling. Reporting to schools has also been made more efficient: school and student results are now reported via the internet (password protected by school), instead of on paper or CD ROM.
Reporting processes
In keeping with the school-review–based requirements, OER provides detailed school reports, with tabular and graphical summaries of performance at strand level, presented on both a male–female and overall basis, with comparative state-level data. In addition, the exercise of returning individual student performance data to schools has become a much more formalised process, with detailed (strand-level) individual reports and class reports being issued to schools. All of these reports are provided in electronic form, downloadable from a secure web site, with each school being able to access only its own data.
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