Understanding Assessment in Australian Education

Posted on Dec 15, 2025 in Primary Education

✅ Clean + Condensed Version (Week 1 Notes)

The Alice Springs (Mparntwe) Education Declaration (2019) sets the national goals for Australian education, replacing the Melbourne Declaration (2009) and Adelaide Declaration (1999). Over 20 years, ministers have articulated the big-picture goals all assessment must work toward:
1. Excellence
2. Equity – fairness (not equality), providing each student what they individually need. Goal 2 applies to all young Australians, including students with disabilities, learning difficulties, and diverse needs. Assessment must be designed for everyone, not just students who easily fit school systems.
You must understand the Declaration for ATP and professional practice. It describes three types of assessment:
• Assessment for learning
• Assessment as learning
• Assessment of learning
AITSL Standard 5 – Assessment Focus for Graduate Teachers
Standard Five: Assess, provide feedback, and report on student learning
Five Focus Areas:
 1️⃣ Understand and apply a range of assessment strategies
 2️⃣ Provide timely, appropriate feedback
 3️⃣ Use moderation to ensure comparable judgments
 4️⃣ Interpret student assessment data to inform teaching
 5️⃣ Use multiple strategies for reporting to stakeholders
✅ What is Assessment? What is Evaluation?
Use reflection to refine your understanding:
 • Assessment → collecting evidence of student learning
 • Evaluation → judging the effectiveness of teaching and learning using assessment data

✅ Why We Assess

• To determine what students need next → teach the learner, not the curriculum
• Students at the same year level are not at the same learning level
• Curriculum describes the average student — assessment identifies individual readiness
• Supports reporting, measures teaching effectiveness, and provides accountability/protection

✅ How We Assess

Tell students exactly what they are being assessed on:
• Learning Intentions (what we are learning)
• Success Criteria (how we know we’ve learned it)
Assessment must be:
 ✔ Valid – measures what it says it measures
✔ Educative – helps students become assessment-capable learners
✔ Fair – accessible to diverse needs (equity)
✔ Comprehensive – multiple opportunities, multiple formats
“One assessment is not enough.” — comprehensive = different ways + over time

✅ Teaching and Learning Cycle

1️⃣ Assess → identify need
 2️⃣ Teach → respond to data
 3️⃣ Assess again → check progress
Assess individuals, groups, or the whole class at the point of need
Effective teaching requires effective assessment.

✅ Peer and Self-Assessment

Important practical strategies for early teachers.

📌 Benefits of Peer Assessment

(Assessment as learning)
• Improves understanding of task expectations (seeing models and discussing them)
• Develops judgment and reflection skills
• Builds communication and interpersonal skills
• Provides more frequent feedback opportunities
Works best as a supplement to teacher feedback.
Supports equity → students have multiple feedback sources.
Effective Peer Feedback
Model what good feedback looks like. Use scaffolds (rubrics, sentence starters).
 Edutopia strategy: SPEAK IT
S = Specific
P = Prescriptive
E = Executable
A = Anchored to criteria
K = Kind/supportive
Practical strategies:
• TAG (Tell something good, Ask a question, Give a suggestion)
• Six Thinking Hats
• 3R (Reflect, Review, Respond)
Self-Assessment
A formative process where students:
• Reflect on strengths (glows) and areas to improve (grows)
• Judge their learning against criteria
• Set new goals
Useful reflective prompts:
 1️⃣ Where am I going?
 2️⃣ Where am I now?
 3️⃣ How will I get there?
Not graded → supports growth mindset and responsibility for learning.
Practical tools:
 • Glow & Grow
 • Two Stars and a Wish
 • Traffic Lights
 • Student-led conferences
Connect self-assessment to growth mindset — “I can’t do it… yet.”