Accountability: Inclusive Assessment, Monitoring And Reporting. Research Report prepared for the Queensland Indigenous Education Consultative Body

This aim of this study was to investigate how current practices for assessment, evaluation and reporting of student outcomes in Queensland schools address distinctive educational needs, challenges and capabilities of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children. The study describes the contexts and current status of a broad range of assessment practices found in school – informal and formal, standardised and non-standardised. These include: system-wide standardised testing, school-based diagnostic procedures, and classroom based evaluation and reporting to parents. The major focus of this study is on a meta-analysis of the 2000 Queensland Year 5 Aspects of Literacy and Numeracy Tests results, items and data sets. Beyond the publicly available test score results, this was the most comprehensive and current data set made available to the research team. The analysis of this data was used to identify several key areas for further research, development and policy. The report concludes with recommendations for system and school-level interventions in the area of testing and assessment.