\u201cValid and reliable evaluation and assessment that leads to improvements of education practices and lifts student learning are key to establishing a high-performing education system.\u201d (OECD, 2013)There is no single best-practice model for an assessment system, but it is important to be based on a high-quality, coherent curriculum with standards and learning progression documents; with a wide range of assessments; and that it sets clear external reference points in terms of expected levels of student performance at different levels of education.There is also insufficient measurement of individual child progress against achievement standards and systematic school-level reporting to administration throughout primary and secondary schooling.There is an urgent need to complement the existing assessment system by systematically better measuring how much individual progress children are making against well-specified standards.Introducing new regular assessments of students in reading, writing and mathematics from years 3 to 8; introducing common reporting templates so parents know how their child is progressing in these core areas; introducing a new assessment near the end of year 2 to check basic skills like counting, phonics, and letter formation.A revised national data collection and reporting framework that focuses on children\u2019s progress towards common achievement standards in literacy, numeracy, science, etc should be rapidly reinstated.<\/p>\n
The bottom line<\/p>\n