ACER PROGESSIVE ACHIEVEMENT TESTS

Over the coming week our students in Year 2 - 6 will be completing their ACER PAT Maths and Reading tests.  ACER’s Progressive Achievement approach is used in thousands of schools in Australia and around the world. The approach focuses on assessing and monitoring student growth over time and is underpinned by an understanding that students of the same age and in the same year of school can be at very different points in their learning and development.

These tests are designed to provide objective, norm-referenced information to teachers about their students’ skills and understandings in a range of key areas.  The Mathematics test assesses students’ skill and understanding in the six strands of Number, Algebra, Geometry, Measurement, Statistics and Probability.  The Reading test assesses students’ reading comprehension skills, vocabulary knowledge and spelling.

Why do schools use PAT tests?

• They provide a measure of student achievement in each learning area.
• There is a common achievement scale for all tests within a learning area.
• They are mapped to the Australian Curriculum.
• They provide overall descriptions of the types of skills mastered and those still to be developed based on test performance.
• They can be used to inform teaching and learning and to assist in planning effective and targeted learning programs.

A healthy education system has multiple assessments (large-scale and small), each designed to suit the purpose at hand. Standardised tests are an imperfect measure by nature, and cannot be expected to measure children’s learning as competently as the teacher who spends hours with them every day.

On the other hand, individual teachers’ judgements cannot map learning across the entire education system. We may be experts on the progress of our students, but we cannot compare that progress with students in the school down the road, let alone a school in another state or territory. Standardised assessment provides the best birds-eye view of where the system is working, and where additional attention is required.

If you have any questions about the ACER testing please do not hesitate to contact your child’s teacher for further clarification.