PRE-CONFERENCE WORKSHOP

New metrics for success: reframing assessment and recognition in Australian schools

ACEL in partnership with the Assessment Research Centre (ARC)

A workshop to explore the ways partnerships with schools are shaping policy and practice in 21st Century assessment.

The workshop is aimed at teachers, school leaders, department heads and network executives, and will build on the current work of the Assessment Research Centre (ARC) and ‘first mover’ schools in the New Metrics and associated projects. School leadership teams may consider attending to kick-start their school’s approach to assessing and recognising general capabilities.

Benefits
Participants in the workshop will:

• be briefed on the current ARC research and methods for assessment, recognition and credentialing of complex competencies/general capabilities
• engage in hands-on exploration of a range of assessment materials and supporting technology
• consider the implications and opportunities for schools and school leaders, including methodologies being developed to support customisation of assessment resources to meet the ambitions of individual schools
• how to develop leadership in your school to transform assessment and recognition practices
• benefit from network support to learn with and from colleagues, locally and nationally (during and post workshop)

Key Content

1. Why and how schools are reframing their approach to assessing and recognising student learning

2. Getting started – Changes in learning ambitions and learning design
First mover case studies 1 and 2

3. Having a go - changes in assessment design and recognition (credentials and reports)
First mover case studies 3 and 4

4. Developmental assessment design and learner agency: what we are learning from first mover schools and systems

5. How to lead transformation of assessment and recognition practices in your school or system.

SANDRA MILLIGAN

Enterprise Professor Sandra Milligan is Director of the Assessment Research Centre at the Melbourne Graduate School of Education, University of Melbourne. Sandra has an unusually wide engagement with the education industry and in educational research. Originally a teacher of science and mathematics, she is also a former Director of Curriculum in an Australian state education department and has held senior research, management and governance positions in a range of educational organisations, including government agencies, not-for-profits, small start-up businesses and large, listed, international corporations. Sandra’s current research interests focus on assessment, recognition and warranting of hard-to-assess learning. She directs several research partnerships with school networks and organisations working to develop Learner Profiles for their students,. She is lead author of ‘Future Proofing Australian Students with New Credentials’ report, outlining methods to reliably assess and recognise the level of attainment of general capabilities, and of Recognition of Learning Success for All: Ensuring Trust and Utility in a New approach to Recognition of Learning in Senior Secondary Education in Australia.

JAYNE JOHNSTON

Jayne has had over 20 years’ experience at senior executive levels in large public education organisations, with expertise in curriculum and assessment design and implementation, leadership development and professional learning and the design of improvement and accountability systems based on rigorous understanding of data. As Deputy Chief Executive in the South Australian Department of Education and Child Development she led the redesign of the school improvement and accountability policies and processes, and enhanced curriculum and assessment support. Significant initiatives included the introduction of a suite of tools and programs to support data informed practices to improve leadership, pedagogy and learning outcomes from the early years to senior secondary schooling.

In her current role as Enterprise Fellow in the ARC, she

• leads an initiative for Big Picture Education Australia to develop valid and reliable assessment tools and processes to warrant the achievements of graduates to support their entry to tertiary pathways and employment
• is a Partnership Lead in New Metrics for Success, a collaborative research project with 35 ‘first mover’ schools across Australia, working together to re-design the grammar of schooling and develop Learner Profiles suited to their context
• co-directs a project to develop an early years’ assessment and learning tool for the Victorian Government, to enable educators in three and four-year-old kindergarten programs to observe and assess children’s learning and development and be intentional in their teaching practice.
• directs the SWANs/ABLES/Early ABLES project, including the provision of services across 6 States and Territories, and ongoing research and development of the assessment platform to support the learning of students with additional needs and disabilities.