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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 9 Hansard (27 August) . . Page.. 2593 ..

MR STEFANIAK (continuing):

Mr Speaker, the Government has made a commitment to the ACT community that it will report on student learning outcomes, commencing next year in primary schools and in 1998 in high schools. As I have said before, the ACT is the only Australian jurisdiction that does not provide to the community or parents any independent information about the learning performance of its students. Accordingly, we are presently engaged in consultation with the community through this reference group.

As members know, the reference group comprises all the key stakeholders. The non-government schools are participating on the reference group as observers. At this stage they have not formally joined the process but they are contributing. There are three people from the non-government system - Catholic and independent - who are contributing to the process. We look forward to seeing whether those schools will be part of this assessment system either immediately or perhaps a year or so down the track. That issue still has not been decided, but it is good to see significant representation from that important group, which forms a third of our school community.

The reference group commenced its meetings in July, and their work is progressing at a rapid rate, as I know a few members are well aware. As Ms Tucker has indicated, they will be reporting their recommendations to the Government by the end of September. They are going to advise on the most appropriate and educationally sound method of conducting assessment in our schools. The terms of reference are comprehensive and will provide the Government with the views of all relevant parties to the reporting process. As I have said, the reference group will address such things as the most appropriate assessment instrument for the ACT. They will also report on the year levels at which this assessment will take place. They will consider the most appropriate times in a student's primary school career to collect the information that is most useful to parents and to schools and positioning them in such a way as to improve learning outcomes for all students. They will also address the format for reporting student achievements to parents and schools. We must ensure that any information collected complements the reporting processes already in our schools. This Government has made a commitment that any assessment measures introduced will enhance the monitoring and reporting of student outcomes, especially in the areas of literacy and numeracy.

Another term of reference concerns arrangements for parents to choose whether or not their child participates in the reporting process. This also must be determined. Parents will have the right to have their child included in, or exempted from, the process. The reference group will also address the appropriate use of data and take into account the privacy of students and parents, along with the privacy responsibilities of schools. I think Ms Tucker raised a very valid point in relation to that particular point, which naturally is of concern to a number of people in our system. A draft policy to protect the rights of individual students and teachers in schools has already been developed. All other States have established provisions for confidentiality in this reporting process. This Government is firmly committed to ensuring that the procedures adopted by our schools in the ACT are absolutely watertight.

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