Session Information
09 SES 09 B, System Monitoring and Accountability: International and Intranational Issues
Paper Session
Contribution
Australia has been a participant in the sample programs of PISA and TIMSS since their inception. These programs are considered highly important by governments as touchstones to assess the Australian standards against its international counterparts; but nationally, these programs are rarely referenced in common stakeholder discussions. On the national scene, the program that has most exposure and is the constant focal point of discussion is NAPLAN. This paper investigates the impact of the introduction of the national assessment program across a wide range of stakeholders in the educational environment and compares and contrasts this with the outcomes of other international assessments.
The Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) is in the unique position to investigate the various aspects of both assessments due to its central involvement in the development and implementation of assessment frameworks, test construction and analysis of each of these programs. In both cases the programs are grounded in measurement theory and in particular the 1-parameter model (Rasch) of Item Response Theory. The principles and assessment practices that underpin each program are common and grounded in the models adopted by ACER for large scale assessments. ACER has a central role in the reporting of NAPLAN and PISA. This research reviews the theoretical assessment frameworks that underpin each program and compares and contrasts the outcomes and the validity of the reports. The research explores the use of the data and the processes and impacts generated by the programs.
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
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