Have tracked down the consultation report. Sorry it’s taken a while. It was done in 1996, but remains relevant. It was archived, but has been resurrected on the ACSSO website at
http://www.acsso.org.au/assessing1996.pdf

There is a related document (An Open Letter to the Minister for Education) near the bottom of the following page:
http://www.acsso.org.au/publications.htm

Hope this helps. By the way, Australia is going through major reform of the National Curriculum at the moment.

Like you, and I dare say everyone who cares about schooling, the Bureau regards literacy as a bedrock of learning. We welcome the Australian government’s investment in improving students’ literacy outcomes. We know from international tests that, while Australian students are achieving good results overall, Australia has too long a ‘tail’ of literacy and numeracy underperformance, which is concentrated amongst students from low socio-economic families and Indigenous students.

As a parent-supported organisation, the Bureau believes regards strong partnerships between schools, families and communities are a positive influence on student learning. We are already seeing effective partnerships between schools and families built around strengthening literacy and numeracy.

Parents want accurate and rich information about their children’s achievements at school, in both academic and social areas. Clearly literacy and numeracy are high on parents’ agendas. Parents want to see all students taught by well qualified, skilled teachers who are able to provide them with good, accurate information about their children’s achievements. Primarily, assessment should be seen as an integral component of teaching and learning, and reports that are based on this premise form part of the accountability processes of teachers to students and their parents.

Some time ago, the Commonwealth funded a major ACSSO/APC consultation to elicit parental views on assessment and reporting in both government and non-government schools. The study revealed that parents understand that the primary purpose of assessment and reporting is to improve learning. These activities should be grounded in carefully collected, accurately measured and properly interpreted information.

Assessment and reporting are critical activities which are best communicated through a mutually respectful and open relationship between parents, teachers and schools. Analysing information, making judgments and developing plans for future learning are ongoing outcomes of these activities, and parents expect teachers to be professionally competent in this respect.

Reporting should relay information in ways which are meaningful to parents and students. Assessment and reporting should be integral to the curriculum but should not narrow or distort the experience of schooling. An appropriate, well thought out school curriculum – in which literacy and numeracy are thoroughly embedded – must encompass equally appropriate and well thought out assessment procedures. The latter should not drive the former.

Parents expect schools to use relevant and robust assessment mechanisms – in both formative and summative ways – to measure achievement and guide further learning and instruction. They also expect schools to communicate information and advice about their children’s learning in ways that honour the role of parents as partners in that learning. This means open and honest dialogue, mutual support and respect for the different roles of teachers and parents, and a recognition that assessment serves the goals and ends of learning, not vice-versa.

I would like to be appointed to the Bureau and would like to know how to go about achieving this?

The Australian Bureau of Statistics 2008 Report states that 55% of school leavers have basic literacy and numeracy skills that are too weak for everyday activities.

Will the Family-School Bureau insist that all schools, government and independant, provide parents with results of objective, norm-referenced testing of basic skills free from ‘grade inflation’ and from subjective teacher assessment each and every year of a student’s enrollment?

Will the Family-School Bureau insist that all schools, government and independant, inform parents prior to enrollment whether or not each and every teacher in each and every class is using teaching and learning strategies that have been proven effective by rigerous, evidenced-based research and extensive field trials?

Thanks for the greetings from Scotland. Love your website by the way. I’ll draw people’s attention to it in our next e-newsletter. I’m on the road for a day or so attending a Parents Expo in regional New South Wales, but will have a longer email chat with you in a few days time.
Cheers
Brenton

Brenton Holmes
Research and Communications Officer
Family-School and Community Partnerships Bureau

Brenton Holmes
Research and Communications Officer
Family-School and Community Partnerships Bureau