| Abstract: | These are changing times in Australia for teachers and their students, with the introduction of a national curriculum and
standards driven reform. While countries in Europe such as England, and in Asia such as Singapore, are changing policy to
use assessment in the support of and improvement of learning it appears that we in Australia are moving towards creating policy
that will raise the assessment stakes for the putative purposes of transparency, accountability and fairness. What can be
learnt from countries that have had years of high stakes testing? How can Australia avoid the mistakes of past curriculum
and assessment reform efforts? And how can Australian teachers build their capacity to maximise their use of the learning
power of assessment? These are the questions that are addressed in this article, with reference to innovative research from
global networks that have maintained the assessment focus on learning rather than accountability practices. |
