Exploring the relationship between large-scale literacy testing programs and classroom-based assessment: A focus on teachers accounts

Abstract

The launch of Australia's first National Plan for literacy and numeracy education has brought to prominence on national and state education policy agenda a particular construction of accountability dependent on rigorous testing, measurement and reporting of outcomes to systems, parents and the wider community. This paper situates current testing initiatives across the country in relation to a significant tension between different assessment goals. It then examines teachers' accounts of testing programs, as they and their students participated in them in Years 3 and 5 Queensland classrooms in 1998. The analyses focus specifically on how the teachers talked about the relationship between the testing programs and their own classroom- based assessment. The paper argues for congruence in assessment and outlines the challenges that must be addressed in order for this to be realised.