New national resources offer teachers practical advice, examples and ready-to-use tools for formative assessment, with the aim of strengthening practice while reducing planning and design workload.
Teachers at an ACT primary school say new formative assessment resources from the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) are helping strengthen their approach to assessment and inform their next teaching steps.
At Sacred Heart Primary School in Pearce, teachers have been using the National Formative Assessment Resources since the beginning of the school year.
Principal David Austin said the resources had strengthened teachers’ shared understanding of formative assessment and given them greater confidence in designing assessments and using the evidence they collect.
“ACARA’s formative assessment resources have been an outstanding support for our school,” Mr Austin said.
Teachers at the school have been using the resources’ selector tool and assessment design guides to create high-quality, curriculum-aligned formative assessments.
Mr Austin said this had increased teachers’ confidence in the evidence they were collecting and their ability to use it to inform their next teaching steps.
“Most importantly, these resources have helped our staff strengthen the connection between curriculum, assessment design and responsive teaching,” he said.
“As a result, assessment is increasingly being used to improve learning, rather than simply measure it.”
The experience at Sacred Heart Primary School is part of a broader national initiative, with teachers across Australia now able to access the free resources.
Funded by the Australian Government Department of Education and developed and published by ACARA, the National Formative Assessment Resources provide practical advice, tools and examples to help teachers strengthen formative assessment practice.
Formative assessment involves gathering evidence of student learning during the learning process. This can include quizzes, classroom discussions, comprehension questions and other short activities that provide information about how students are progressing.
Teachers can use this evidence to adjust their teaching in response to student needs, helping identify where students may need additional support, extension or a different approach.
For teachers, the new resources are intended to make this process easier to plan and implement, while helping strengthen the links between curriculum, assessment and teaching.
ACARA CEO Stephen Gniel said the resources provide practical examples, tools and guidance that can be used in different classroom settings.
“ACARA’s new formative assessment resources place curriculum at the centre of formative assessment design, helping teachers make clearer links between teaching and assessment.”
The resources are aligned with the Australian Curriculum and are designed to help teachers understand how students are progressing in their learning and identify appropriate next steps.
They can also be adapted by jurisdictions, education systems and schools to complement existing assessment approaches and resources.
Workload was a key consideration in their development, with the resources providing practical, ready-to-use tools to assist with planning and assessment design.
“We know that teachers face considerable workload challenges,” Mr Gniel said.
“That’s why these resources are designed to reduce workload by giving teachers practical, ready-to-use tools that will save them time in planning and design and support consistent practice across Australian classrooms.”
The resources were developed over an 18-month period, drawing on research and consultation with teachers, assessment experts, jurisdictions and education stakeholders from across Australia.
Dr Tom Porta, Lecturer in Education at the University of Adelaide, was one of the academic experts involved in the project.
He said the resources provide teachers with a clear structure for designing and implementing formative assessment while allowing them to adapt approaches to their own classrooms.
“These new national formative assessment resources from ACARA provide teachers with a clear structure for designing and implementing effective practices and the flexibility to adapt these approaches with professional autonomy,” Dr Porta said.
He said they could help teachers make responsive, evidence-informed decisions that meet the diverse learning needs of students while remaining closely aligned with the curriculum.
For teachers and school leaders looking to strengthen formative assessment practice, the National Formative Assessment Resources offer practical advice, examples and tools that can be incorporated into existing teaching and planning approaches.
The National Formative Assessment Resources are available through the Australian Curriculum website at australiancurriculum.edu.au/resources/formative-assessment.