Reporting is a process, not simply a format for a report card. It is made up of a number of practices that schools negotiate with their parent communities and apply regularly and routinely in a cyclic manner. Reporting involves a professional judgement made on a body of evidence about a student’s progress and achievement against the standards of the curriculum of each learning area. These indicate standards of typical development aligned with particular year levels. Reporting provides parents with a progress point along this framework as well as a statement of achievement that indicates whether progress is at the expected level, above or below it.
Brisbane Catholic Education schools’ current reporting practices include summaries of student achievement in a printed report format; teacher/parent and/or student; interviews about learning achievement and progress; portfolio reporting incorporating overall statements of achievement or progress in learning areas; and opportunities for parents to participate in assessment opportunities in which students demonstrate their learning.
The purpose of reporting differs for different phases of schooling:
- reporting in the early years describes students’ learning and development against a continuum
- reporting in the middle (upper primary and lower secondary) years describes individual student progress against the curriculum intent, for all students in the schooling process
- reporting in Years 11 and 12 reflects a merit and/or competency-based approach and forms the basis of certification data for inclusion on the Queensland Certificate of Education and rank for tertiary entrance procedures.
In addition to these formal school reports, students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 take part in annual National Assessment Program Literacy And Numeracy (NAPLAN) testing, after which reports are produced. Students receive individual reports that allow parents to identify aspects of achievement and some comparative information with their children’s peers across the nation (though it should be remembered that interstate comparisons remain of dubious value until such time as a national curriculum is implemented by all states). To the extent that the tests are based on only a small part of the overall curriculum, they may indicate some individual strengths and weaknesses.
Until a national curriculum may be implemented – ensuring students in all schools in Australia are taught the same content, delivered at the same time – it is not valid to use such national tests to compare results of students in different states. Additionally, because of differing starting age requirements, Queensland students generally have not been in school for as long as their counterparts in other states, putting them at a comparative disadvantage.
Queensland school authorities (Catholic, state and independent) are continuing to lobby the federal government for a review of the national testing system to try to ensure greater relevance of the tests to the curriculum being taught in our schools, and to allow for more valid comparison between the states.
In the interim, it remains the case that the best indicator of each student’s achievement is the school’s own assessment program, designed to assess the student’s ability in relation to the curriculum taught in our schools. These levels of achievement will continue to form the basis of semester reporting to parents.
Mandatory School Reporting
By 30 June each year, all schools are required to publish a range of information on their websites, for the benefit of parents and the wider community. This information is very comprehensive and includes:
- total number of enrolments
- whether the school is co-educational or single sex
- distinctive curriculum offerings
- strategies used for involving parents in their child’s education
- qualifications of teachers and their professional development
- average student attendance rate
- NAPLAN results for students in Years 3, 5, 7, 9
- retention rates for Years 10 to 12
- Year 12 student outcomes (Qld Certificate of Education, Vocational Education and Training qualifications, Overall Position (OP) results, offers of tertiary places)
- post-school destination information for students