Victoria (VIC)

Standards and Benchmarking

• 1. What does your state/territory understand by the terms standards and benchmarking?

  Standards are implicit in the curriculum documents prepared by the Board of Studies. Standards refers to the acceptable achievement levels of students in a particular band of year levels engaged with concepts and content of a particular area of the curriculum.

• 2. How are standards and benchmarks currently applied in your state/territory? (current practice)

  School performance benchmarks are presented for schools in Victoria in a way that enables schools to compare their performance with the performance achieved by other schools. This performance is aggregated from the performance of individual students.

  School performance benchmarks are presented to schools across the state in groupings or categories of "like" schools. That is; schools with similar social compositions of students.

  Schools are urged use benchmark data to analyse and improve their performances in terms if the benchmark results for the school.

• 3. Briefly outline the work being done in area of standards and benchmarking in your state/territory.

  School performance benchmarks are presented to schools in the following areas:

  • Student achievement in the VCE
  • Student achievement in the P-10
  • Time allocated to each KLA by year level
  • Student absence rates
  • School post compulsory destinations
  • Staff opinion surveys
  • Staff absence rates

  At the VCE level schools are provided with benchmark data in the subjects undertaken by their students.

  The results of state-wide testing is used to provide benchmark data annually to schools in English and Mathematics at Year 3 and 5.

  The recently published CSF II details the standards in each of the curriculum areas at regular intervals from Prop to Year 10.

Middle Years of Schooling (Years 5-8)

• 1. How does your state/territory define the ‘middle years’? (what years)

  Victoria’s Curriculum and Standards Framework (CSF) recognizes that the boundaries between phases of student development are variously defined.

  CSF levels have been grouped in three broad stages to reflect changing priorities over the first eleven years of schooling. CSF Levels 4-5 are associated with Years 5-8, however this grouping is not intended to constrain schools as they develop their own approaches to curriculum organization and delivery. Department of Education, Employment and Training (DEET) programs and publications refer to the Middle Years as Years 5-9.

  The flexibility and range of options provided at levels 4 and 5 of the CSF allows for different organizational arrangements, grouping practices, core-option approaches, integrated curriculum and vertical and block timetabling — all approaches typically used to encourage students to exercise choices or explore different emphases within and across the key learning areas.

• 2. What initiatives/programs are currently being planned or implemented in the ‘middle years’ in your state/territory?

  See answer to Question 3

• 3. What are some of the current issues in the middle years of schooling being addressed in your state/territory?

  MYRAD PROJECT

  The Department of Education has established a Middle Years of Schooling Research and Development (MYRAD) Project in conjunction with the University of Melbourne. This research and development project aims to research strategies that improve the cognitive and affective dimensions of student learning in the middle years of schooling and develop for schools a design model to assist planning in the middle years. The Project involves in-depth research into 62 clusters of secondary schools and up to three of their feeder primary schools.

  Phase 1 of the Project has focussed on:

  • Standards and expectations - enhancing the transition process between primary and secondary school in a context of relevant system-wide standards

  • Monitoring and assessment — including the development of student portfolios
  • Classroom teaching strategies — development of a specific middle years pedagogy characterised by cooperative and independent learning, clear and authentic assessment, integration of the curriculum, and the opportunity for students to negotiate some of their learning
  • Professional learning teams - involving fewer teachers working with students and enhanced teamwork amongst teachers and students
  • School and class organisation - a reconsideration of the structure of the school and timetabling arrangements
  • Home/School/Community Links - the development of improved transition arrangements for students.
  • Leadership and coordination to achieve middle school reform

   

  SUCCESSFUL INTERVENTIONS: A SECONDARY LITERACY AND NUMERACY INITIATIVE.

  This project is supported by DETYA funding and is conducted in partnership between the

  Department of Education, Employment and Training (DEET), the Catholic Education Commission of Victoria (CECV) and the Association of Independent Schools of Victoria (AISV). It aims to provide improved literacy and numeracy outcomes for all students, particularly those experiencing difficulties. The project consists of a number of sub-projects and activities detailed below.

  LITERACY ENVIRONMENTAL SCAN YEARS 5-10

  Completed in October 1998. The Victorian Association of Teachers of English (VATE) conducted a statewide survey seeking data on the way schools sought to improve literacy outcomes for those students they perceived to be having difficulties. The environmental scan and associated research provided the basis for the Secondary Literacy Research Project.

  THE SECONDARY LITERACY RESEARCH PROJECT

  Contracted to the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER), this project seeks to provide research based advice to schools and sectors that will assist schools to raise literacy outcomes, particularly for those students whose low literacy levels may lead to failure during secondary schooling.

  This project is researching the effectiveness of a wide range of literacy programs, practices and strategies currently in use in a sample of forty-four Victorian secondary schools. These programs’ are evaluated against the following criteria:

  • effectiveness and appropriateness for 'at risk' groups of students
  • resource effectiveness
  • compatibility to the CSF
  • capacity to be incorporated into Department structures
  • capacity to facilitate full student participation in mainstream classes.

  MIDDLE YEARS LITERACY RESEARCH

  Contracted to Deakin University, this project seeks to:

  • assist secondary English teachers to maximise their effectiveness as teachers of literacy within the English Key Learning Area in the mainstream classroom
  • assist other Key Learning Area teachers to clarify their roles and maximise their effectiveness as teachers of the literacy demands of their subjects in the mainstream classroom
  • assist primary teachers (Years 5 and 6) to maximise their effectiveness as teachers of literacy in the mainstream classroom
  • are transferable between different schools, settings and sectors
  • enable national and state goals and targets to be met.

  The project builds on the learnings of the Early Years Literacy Program and the work of Redesigning the Middle Years. It utilises the Hill and Crevola Design Elements of a General Model of School Improvement.

   

  THE NUMERACY ENVIRONMENTAL SCAN YEARS 5-10

  The environmental scan was commissioned and carried out by the Mathematical Association of Victoria (MAV) in 1998. The purpose of the scan was to determine:

  • the types of intervention programs currently used in Years 5-8 numeracy strategies
  • the nature of the intervention programs used in terms of perceived transferability, CSF best practice, resource efficiency and systemic viability
  • how schools are currently identifying students at risk of not achieving appropriate numeracy levels
  • the perceived need of effective intervention programs
  • the costs of various strategies.

  The research found very little by way of coordinated and systematic intervention programs for numeracy in the middle years.

  MIDDLE YEARS NUMERACY RESEARCH PROJECT: 5-8+

  Contracted to RMIT University (Bundoora), the aim of this research project is provide advice to the DoE, the CECV and the AISV,which will lead to the development of a coordinated and strategic plan for numeracy improvement.

  • The strategy will exemplify the best possible practice in mathematics education and improve numeracy achievement for all students in the middle years in Victorian schools.
  • The strategic plan will provide schools with clear teaching and learning directions which will ensure that the national and state goals and targets are met and that individual student numeracy achievement is improved.

  The Middle Years Numeracy Research Project: 5-8+ will build upon the work of the Early Numeracy Research Project (ENRP) and the Early Literacy Research Project (ELRP) and utilise the design model developed by Hill and Crevola. The Middle Years Research and Development (MYRAD) project will also inform the research project.

  VOCATIONAL LEARNING

  The Board of Studies is currently developing program outlines and support materials for programs in Vocational Learning for Years 9 and 10 students, mapped against CSF outcomes, key competencies and VET recognition arrangements. Methods are also being developed to report achievement of key competencies at Years 9 and 10.

Vocational Learning

In answering questions 2-5, where applicable, please apply the MCEETYA Taskforce draft definitions for vocational learning and structured workplace learning. (see attachment below, Appendix 1: Definitions)

If the initiatives/programs in your state do not ‘fit’ the MCEETYA definitions please describe the type of vocational activity by using and defining the terminology applied in your state/territory.

• 1. What does your state/territory understand by the terms
  vocational learning and
  structured workplace learning?
  

  Vocational Learning is generally understood as the learning students undertake as a result of programs or strategies that engage them in activities focused on the world of work and learning they undertake through being at work. It is the term used of programs that do not necessarily have a specific industry focus, but will engage students in issues os future pathways, the exploration of possible career interests, the competencies expected by particular industries, and what can be learned through experiencing work. The term is used of programs and activities still broadly located within general education, rather than of recognised VET programs. Like enterprise education, it will normally involve a collaborative effort by people form different curriculum areas.

  Structured work place learning is understood as defined by MCEETYA. Structured work placement is defined as an arrangement that involves students in Years 10-12 studying a VET program, it allows students to acquire competency required by a vocational training program, and is governed by funding and legal arrangements.

   

• 2. What initiatives/programs are being planned or implemented in your state or territory in vocational learning and structured workplace learning and in what years?

Vocational learning:

Initiatives include development of program outlines and support materials for programs in Vocational Learning for Years 9 and 10 students, mapped against CSF outcomes, key competencies and VET recognition arrangements; development of methods of reporting achievement of key competencies at Years 9 and 10 and in the VCE.

Structured work place learning:

Placement for the purpose of structured workplace learning is required part of a range of VCE VET programs and is recommended for all others.

• 3. What is the rationale for having vocational learning and structured workplace learning in the curriculum in the compulsory years?

The importance placed on these aspects for the compulsory years is in line with the National Goals of Schooling: the value of such initiatives in the compulsory years is universally acknowledged in Victoria.

• 4. How are the vocational learning initiatives/programs in the compulsory years linked to those in the post compulsory years?

Links between compulsory years are in:

• the availability of VCE VET studies for entry in Year 10
• linkages between key competencies addressed by CSF outcomes and the further development of key competencies in the post compulsory years
• formal recognition arrangements encouraging flexible movement between one pathway and another.
• 5. How might any issues identified in the middle years of schooling (see 3. Above in Middle Years of Schooling) impact on vocational learning in Years 9 and 10? What are the curriculum implications?

  The major issue arising form the middle years of schooling is the need for the curriculum and standards framework to be used in preparation for the vocational interests which are taken up in much more detail in Years 9 and 10; the CSF provides a range of ways of addressing this issue for the middle years.

Reporting at the End of the Compulsory Years

• 1. What is the purpose of internal (i.e. by schools) reporting in the compulsory years in your state/territory?

Each year schools are required to provide parents with at least two written reports on student achievement in the key learning areas against the Curriculum and Standards Framework (CSF) II for Years Prep to Year 10.

The key aim of reporting students’ progress to parents is to ensure that parents are provided with accurate, useful and timely information about their child’s progress at school and to provide a point of discussion between teachers and parents to assist with the next steps in student’s learning.

Parents receive student results from the statewide Achievement Improvement Monitor (AIM) testing. The Board of Studies conducts the AIM for students in Years 3 and 5 in English and Mathematics.

Victoria does not have a Year 10 Certificate.

 

• 2. What is the purpose of external (i.e. by systems/Board/Council) reporting in the compulsory years in your state/territory? (if any)

  The Achievement and Improvement Monitor (AIM) testing for students in Years 3 and 5 in English and Mathematics provides the necessary data for comparing Victorian student achievement against national benchmarks.

  The purpose of annual reporting by schools to DEET is to enable schools and their clients to monitor, as objectively as possible, the effectiveness of teaching programs and of the

  school’s core operations, taking into account the characteristics of their student populations.

  The School Accountability Framework supports schools in maintaining high and improving standards of learning for each student.

  The framework allows schools to develop their own education plans and priorities having regards to Government policies and programs; it provides the means to check programs and establish whether objectives are being met and it provides performance information to local communicates and to DEET.

  The main components of the accountability framework are the School Charter, the School Annual Report and the Triennial School Review. The accountability framework includes the use of benchmarks of actual school performance.

   

• 3. What information is currently reported externally? (if any)

  [especially for reporting on information technology competencies and on levels of achievement in English and Mathematics]

   

• 4. How is this information reported?

  The Board of Studies conducts the Achievement Improvement Monitor (AIM) testing program for students in Years 3 and 5. The statewide testing provides an indicator of student achievement in literacy and numeracy whilst measuring their achievement against the Curriculum and Standards Framework (CSF) and national benchmarks.

  The Board of Studies will also conduct sample testing for Year 7 students in Maths and English in August 2001. These results will provide the necessary data for comparing Victorian student achievement against national benchmarks.

  Schools report each year in the School Annual Report, against the following achievement measures:

  Student learning: primary schools
  Student achievement against the indicative levels described in the Curriculum and Standards Framework (CSF) in English and Mathematics.

  Student learning: secondary colleges
  

  • Student achievement against the indicative levels described in the Curriculum and Standards Framework in English and Mathematics.

  • Student achievement in the Victorian Certificate of Education (VCE).

  Specialist schools
  Staff assessment of progress towards individual learning goals established in the context of the Curriculum and Standards Framework.

   

  Curriculum provision and participation

  • Time allocation to the eight key learning areas.
  • Parent opinion as measured by the questionnaire developed by DEET
  • Participation of students and groups of students in elective programs and in the Victorian Certificate of Education (secondary colleges only)

  School learning environment

  • Student accident data.
  • Responses to the parent opinion questionnaire.
  • Student attendance patterns.

  Accountability
  Exit and destination data in terms of employment or further study (secondary colleges only).

  • Responses to the parent opinion questionnaire.
  • Enrolment patterns.

  Management
  

  • Responses to a staff opinion questionnaire provided by the Office of Review.
  • Patterns of participation in professional development.
  • Rates of staff leave.

  Resources
  

  • Statement of annual financial result.
  • Total receipts and expenditure.

  The school annual report assists schools to monitor standards of student achievement.

  Teachers use the levels and strands of the Curriculum and Standards Framework to make judgements about the achievements of individual students. These individual assessments are then aggregated to provide information about the achievements of year level cohorts and the school as a whole.

  For secondary colleges, student achievement is also analysed and reported in terms of results in the VCE. Benchmarks provided by DEET assist schools to identify their relative standard of achievement.

  Schools are also asked to report on the achievement of boys and girls, students of non-English-speaking background, Koorie students, students with special learning needs and students with high levels of mobility.

  Achievement

  The results of statewide testing is also used to provide benchmark data annually to schools in English and Mathematics at Year 3 and 5.

• 5. What agency is responsible for external reporting?

  The Board of Studies is responsible for state-wide testing and reporting to parents, schools and the sectors in English and Mathematics at Year 3 and 5.

  The Office of Schools, School Accountability and Development Division, DEET manages the accountability framework for government schools in Victoria.

Vocational Education is a broad ‘umbrella’ term that designates a range of programs and strategies that aim to better prepare students for school-to-work transition. It encompasses elements related to education, the world of work and school-industry partnerships.

Structured Workplace Learning is:

• integrated into a VET program:
• It operates within the contexts of vocational courses that are recognised by industry, are responsive to industry needs and forms part of a student’s exit credential.
• structured:
• It has a clearly articulated and documented purpose;
• There are clearly identified and documented learning outcomes for students within accredited programs which are linked to post-school qualifications;
• Placements are of sufficient duration and depth to enable students to acquire a reasonable understanding of the enterprise/industry in order to demonstrate competence according to industry standards of at least Level 1 of the AQF;
• There is a matching process between the students’ skills and interest and work placements; and
• Students, teachers and employers are thoroughly prepared beforehand so that the expectations and outcomes of the work placement are clearly understood by all parties.
• monitored:
• The learning is coordinated by personnel with appropriate expertise and adequate resources; and
• Support should be made available to students and employers throughout the course of work placement.
• regulated:
• There are clearly stated procedures designed to ensure student safety;
• The students are required to understand the roles and responsibilities of employees in the work place and are expected to follow the directions of the workplace supervisors and the other employees.
• assessed:
• The assessment, according to industry standards, is of students’ competencies achieved in the workplace which contributes to the overall assessment of the program; and
• There are mechanisms for the recording and reporting of students’ competencies.