An education peak body has questioned the traditional end of semester report believing continuous reporting is a more accurate indication of students' learning growth.
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The Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) released a report last month that investigated the effectiveness of the biannual school report card.
The report was put together by ACER researchers Hilary Hollingsworth, Johnathon Heard and Paul Weldon, pointed out that Australian schools only report school achievement where as the recent Gonski report highlights the importance of communicating learning growth along with achievement.
"The singular focus on grades and scores can leave parents with little insight into their child's learning growth and can be demotivating for students," Dr Hollingsworth said.
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The ACER report recommends that school reporting should track student growth overtime in relation to the typical pathway of learning in each area, making clear how students are both performing and progressing against expectations and include specific information about how to improve.
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"Parents and students told us they want school reports to explain what the student has, and has not yet, been able to demonstrate and indicate more specifically what they need to do next to progress in a learning area," Dr Hollingsworth said.
"Traditional semester reports require significant time and resourcing to produce and, by the time parents receive them, the information is often outdated and unactionable,"
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The NSW Department of Education said the current reporting system, of biannual written reports using the A-E scale and teachers comments, is NSW policy.
"Many schools also provide regular opportunities for ongoing and informal feedback about learning progress. For some schools this includes the use of electronic platforms for sharing student learning to illustrate progress. Schools use these processes to complement the twice yearly written reports," the NSW Department of Education spokesperson said
"A comprehensive review of the NSW curriculum has been undertaken and the interim report has been released. This involved extensive community consultation across NSW and include recommendations on the assessment and reporting of student learning progress.
"The final report is due to be delivered to the Minister for Education and Early Childhood in early 2020."
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