Search the VCAA website

•  
• Bulletins & Memos|
• Calendar|
• Excellence & Awards|
• School Administration

• Early Years
• VEYLDF 0-8 (Victorian Early Years Learning and Development Framework)
• Years Prep to 10
• NAPLAN (National Assessment Program - Literacy and Numeracy)
• VELS (Victorian Essential Learning Standards)
• Senior Secondary
• VCE (Victorian Certificate of Education)
• VET (Vocational Education and Training)
• VCAL (Victorian Certificate of Applied Learning)

Memorandum to Schools 102/2009

6 October 2009

Teacher Professional Learning: Assessment for Better Learning Using NAPLAN Data

In Term 4, the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority (VCAA) is providing a teacher professional learning program for the NAPLAN Data Service. The program will be delivered on behalf of the VCAA by Philip Holmes-Smith from School Research Evaluation and Measurement Services (SREAMS). Principals will receive an invitation letter from SREAMS in the first week of Term 4.

The program, called Assessment for Better Learning using NAPLAN Data, will focus on two main themes:

• How classroom teachers can use the responses to questions on the NAPLAN 2009 tests as a diagnostic tool to inform them about the strengths and areas for improvement of students in their classes

• How curriculum leaders and classroom teachers can use their school-level data to analyse the impact of their school’s learning programs.

The teacher professional learning program will be offered as a two-hour workshop to be delivered from October to early December. These workshops are for principals, NAPLAN coordinators and classroom teachers and are free of charge to participants. To maximise opportunities for school personnel to attend, the workshops will be presented at venues across both metropolitan and regional Victoria (see the attachment to this Memorandum for workshop venues, dates and times). Tea and coffee will be available on arrival.

Workshops will commence with a demonstration on how to access data through the NAPLAN Data Service website. However, the central component of each workshop is designed to assist teachers to interpret their school’s data to inform classroom practice and improve student achievement. This component concentrates on the diagnostic elements of the NAPLAN 2009 tests. The final segment of the workshop will have a ‘whole school’ focus concentrating on the interpretation of data to inform curriculum and school-wide policies.

There will be opportunities for participants to reflect on their own school’s data and to seek clarification regarding interpretation of the data.
To support this activity, schools are asked to bring hard copies of a selection of the NAPLAN 2009 Data Reports. As there is no provision for online access at workshops, participants are not required to bring lap-top computers. Details about which reports to bring will be provided once participants have registered.  To register for a workshop please follow the instructions below.

Registration Instructions
Schools may elect to send up to four members of staff to any one of the two-hour workshops. Please select the time and location most suitable to you and lodge your registration. Please note that places are limited at some of the workshop venues, so bookings are essential.

Please register online at:
www.sreams.com.au

Registrations will open on TUESDAY, 6 OCTOBER, 2009.

If you have any queries please contact Rowan Holmes-Smith by email (rowan@sreams.com.au) or phone (0417 129 074).

On completion of your online registration, you will receive confirmation of your booking and information on which hard copy NAPLAN 2009 reports to bring to the workshop. We suggest that at the time of registration, you printa copy of your registration confirmation and the list of reports to bring to the workshop. 

Workshop details are also available on the VCAA website at www.vcaa.vic.edu.au.

Please encourage your staff, particularly any new staff members who are less familiar with large scale testing, to participate in this valuable teacher professional learning activity.

 

Back to Top