ACEReSearch

National assessment program : civics and citizenship years 6 and 10 report 2010

Wolfram Schulz et al. — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 18:40:52 PST

This report presents the findings of the National Assessment Program – Civics and Citizenship conducted under the auspices of the national council of education ministers, the Ministerial Council for Education, Early Childhood Development and Youth Affairs (MCEECDYA) in 2010. Under the National Assessment Program, assessment of civics and citizenship is conducted with a random sample of Year 6 and Year 10 students on a triennial cycle. This is a report of the third such assessment. The National Assessment Program – Civics and Citizenship measures not only students’ skills, knowledge and understandings of Australia’s system of government and civic life but also their attitudes, values and participation in civic-related activities at school and in the community. The 2010 assessment framework was influenced by the release of the national Statements of Learning for Civics and Citizenship in 2006 and the Melbourne Declaration on Educational Goals for Young Australians in 2008. As a consequence, the 2010 assessment was broader than those in 2004 and 2007 but also provided a strong link to those prior assessments to allow reporting of trends over time.

Staff in Australia's schools 2010 : main report on the survey

Phil McKenzie et al. — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 22:23:14 PST

The Staff in Australia’s Schools (SiAS) survey was commissioned by the Australian Government Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR) in April 2010. It was conducted by the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) from August to December 2010.

The survey is intended to provide a detailed picture of the Australian teacher workforce, and to gather information to assist in future planning of the workforce. It is also designed to provide comparative and updated data following on from the first SiAS survey conducted in 2006-07.

The work was supported by an Advisory Committee2 that included representatives from DEEWR, government education authorities from all states and territories, the National Catholic Education Commission (NCEC), the Independent Schools Council of Australia (ISCA), the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), and the following national associations:

Australian Council of Deans of Education (ACDE)
Australian Education Union (AEU)
Association of Heads of Independent Schools of Australia (AHISA)
Australian Primary Principals Association (APPA)
Australian Secondary Principals Association (ASPA)
Catholic Secondary Principals Australia (CaSPA)
Independent Education Union of Australia (IEUA)

Profiles of teachers in selected curriculum areas : further analyses of the Staff in Australia’s Schools 2010 Survey

Paul R. Weldon et al. — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 22:23:12 PST

This report was commissioned by DEEWR and uses data from the 2010 Staff in Australia’s Schools (SiAS) survey to analyse the profiles of the teachers teaching in five selected curriculum areas in primary schools and 12 areas in secondary schools and to compare the 2010 data with that obtained in the 2007 SiAS survey. The areas were selected to help inform policy initiatives as well as concerns about teacher shortages in those areas and other related workforce issues.

Snapshot : current international projects

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 17:19:19 PST

This article gives a brief overview of ACER's current international projects including an overview of ACER's work in Spain, Norway, India, the Arab States, and Saudi Arabia.

Graduate capability

Hamish Bennett Coates — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 17:19:18 PST

Is it feasible to produce a generalisable assessment of higher education learning outcomes to demonstrate the capability of graduates? In a word, yes. Hamish Coates explains.

Regional focus : South East Asia

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 17:19:17 PST

Foreign Ministers at the sixth East Asia Summit (EAS) in Bali, Indonesia, in July 2011 welcomed the convening of the first EAS Education Ministers meeting. The meeting of the Education Ministers of the 18 EAS countries was agreed at the previous EAS meeting in Hanoi, Vietnam, in October 2010. The ministers agreed to pursue further cooperation to enhance the quality of education, and promote educational exchange and innovation in the region.

Regional focus : India and Bangladesh

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 17:19:17 PST

ACER India increased the size of its workforce in 2011 and now boasts more than double the number of staff employed in 2010. The expansion increases the capacity of ACER India in terms of data analysis with a focus on international achievement studies, state monitoring programs and evaluation studies, as well as in terms of publication and marketing. The increased capacity means ACER India is well placed to independently undertake educational research and development work in India and beyond.

A clearer picture : national and international testing in the UAE

Alan Egbert — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 17:19:16 PST

The Ministry of Education of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has recently introduced the UAE National Assessment Program (UAENAP), developed by the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) in partnership with the ministry, to monitor student achievement and progress, in order to inform policy and curriculum development for the nation.

Partner focus : good neighbours

Leila Ismail — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 17:19:16 PST

Researchers at ACER are ensuring Australia's international aid program in support of quality education is as smart as it can be, through its work with AusAID.

International Developments (No.2) 2012

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 17:19:15 PST

International Update (No. 2) November 2011

Sun, 15 Jan 2012 23:04:24 PST

Table of contents for this issue: (a) Beginning teacher standards in Saudi Arabia; (b) National assessment reports on health of UAE school system; (c) AHELO moves ahead; (d) ACER and CBSE conduct international assessment conference; (e) ACER India expands operations; (f) Measuring adult skills in New Zealand; (g) ACER and UNESCO Beirut collaborate in Arab States; (h) Reading literacy reform in Portugal; (i) Assessing generic skills; (j) Testing basic mathematics in Norway.

Student engagement at New Zealand Institutes of Technology and Polytechnics : Key results from the 2010 pilot

Ali Radloff — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 14:34:01 PST

The Australasian Survey of Student Engagement (AUSSE) provides data that tertiary institutions throughout New Zealand and Australia can use to attract, engage and retain their students. Through measuring the time and effort students devote to educationally purposeful activities and other aspects of their experience at their institution the AUSSE provides a greater understanding of students’ engagement with study and their learning. Instead of focusing on student satisfaction, retention and completion rates, looking at the way in which students learn and the outcomes they achieve allows institutions to gain a better understanding of the quality of education students are getting. The AUSSE is an annual survey managed by the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) in cooperation with participating tertiary education providers. This particular report focuses on the results from a pilot of the AUSSE survey undertaken in 2010 with Institutes of Technology and Polytechnics (ITPs). ACER with support and funding from Ako Aotearoa conducted a pilot of the AUSSE survey with ten New Zealand ITPs. Previously, the AUSSE survey had focused solely on higher education students, specifically on-shore students in their first- or later-year of bachelor degree study; however the ITP pilot expanded the reach of the survey to on-shore students undertaking qualifications from New Zealand Qualifications Authority levels three through seven – certificate level to bachelor level study.

Student engagement in New Zealand’s universities

Ali Radloff — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 14:32:37 PST

Although the numbers of students entering bachelor level study in New Zealand is growing and is high relative to OECD averages, the number of students leaving with a qualification is low compared to many other countries. Data from the Ministry of Education show that completion rates are relatively low, particularly among certain groups of students. Around one-third of students who began a bachelor degree in 2002 had not completed the degree, or a degree at the same or a higher level, eight years after starting. Completion rates are higher among Asian New Zealand students, but much lower among Maori and Pasifika students. Eight-year completion rates are also much higher among students studying full-time (80%) than students studying part-time (52%). This report explores student engagement among students studying at New Zealand’s eight universities, and focuses on student groups that are of particular interest to the New Zealand higher-education sector, such as Maori and Pasifika students, students studying via non-traditional modes (such as part-time or extramurally), and international students. Other chapters in this report focus on student workload, differences in engagement between male and female students, students studying in different fields, and students’ departure intentions. Using the most recent results available at each of the eight New Zealand universities participating in the AUSSE from 2007 to 2009, this report provides an overview of the university sector and some answers to questions about students’ experience of university and how they are learning. This report contains chapters by the following authors: Ali Radloff, Hamish Coates, Jacques van der Meer, Keith Comer, Erik Brogt, Giselle Byrnes, Stephen Marshall, Trudy Harris, Richard Coll, Ineke Kranenburg, Jenny Poskitt, Malcolm Rees, Gordon Suddaby.

Uniting teachers and learners : Critical insights into the importance of staff-student interactions in Australian university education

Sarah Richardson — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 14:32:33 PST

This briefing focuses on perhaps the most fundamental aspect of university student learning– the role of teaching staff at universities. It does so by reporting insights from both teaching staff themselves and the students whom they teach. If the scholarship of teaching requires bridges to be built between teachers and learners, this briefing examines the structural integrity of those bridges in contemporary university education in Australia. In doing so it focuses attention on perhaps the most obvious but most woefully neglected aspect of quality in higher education – the role which teaching staff play in inspiring, challenging and engaging students.

Effects of item positions on their difficulty and discrimination : A study in PISA Science data across test language and countries

Luc T. Le — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 17:39:40 PST

This study was based on a four-cluster rotation design of 13 linked test booklets from PISA 2006 science data. It investigated effects of item positions on their difficulty and discrimination parameter estimates obtained from one and two parameter IRT Partial Credit models. The analyses were done separately for 57 test language groups from 53 countries with a total of about 340,000 students.

The results revealed that for all of the test language groups the items tended to become more difficult when they were located later in the test. However, a high linear relationship between the item difficulty estimates by the four cluster locations was found. Moreover, open-ended items seemed to show more change than items in other formats. There were small variations in the cluster locations for the item point-biserial discrimination and the item discrimination parameter from the two-parameter Partial Credit model across the test language groups.

PISA 2009 Plus Results : Performance of 15-year-olds in reading, mathematics and science for 10 additional participants

Maurice Walker — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 20:14:32 PST

The OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) is an international comparative survey of 15-year-olds’ knowledge and skills in reading, mathematical and scientific literacy. PISA seeks to measure how well young adults have acquired the knowledge and skills that are required to function as successful members of society. As part of the PISA 2009 survey, students completed an assessment on reading literacy, mathematical literacy and scientific literacy, as well as an extensive background questionnaire. School principals also completed a survey describing the context of education at their school, including the level of resources in the school and qualifications of staff. Sixty-four countries or economies originally participated in PISA 2009: all 34 OECD countries plus 31 partner countries and economies. These 65 participants administered the PISA 2009 tests in 2009. Ten additional partner participants who were unable to participate within the PISA 2009 project timeframe participated in the PISA 2009 study on a reduced and delayed timeline. This is known as the PISA 2009+ project. The ten PISA 2009+ participants administered the same assessments as their PISA 2009 counterparts, the only difference being that the assessments were administered in 2010. The PISA 2009+ countries or economies were adjudicated against the same technical and quality standards as their PISA 2009 counterparts. The ten PISA 2009+ participants were: Costa Rica, Georgia, Himachal Pradesh-India, Malaysia, Malta, Mauritius, Miranda-Venezuela, Moldova, Tamil Nadu-India, and The United Arab Emirates.