SWANs Project 2008 and 2009 Summary

Schools that participated in the SWANs research in 2007 will be invited to take part in the ongoing phases of the project, which will operate over 2008 and 2009. Each school will be asked to nominate a person to lead the project within the school, and a team of at least three teachers to participate in the research.

Each teacher in a school team will be asked to assess up to three students on three occasions (at the end of terms 2 and 4, 2008, and at the end of term 2, 2009) using assessment materials that were trialled in 2007 and refined by the research team in early 2008. The data of teachers’ assessments of their students will be checked to examine whether they provide information that is sufficiently sensitive to detect development in student performance.

The school’s team leader will be responsible for reporting information to the research team on school-based activities involving targeted intervention for individual students and in turn for interpreting to their colleagues the assessment reports provided by the research team. This team-based protocol and its impact on student learning has been described in full by Griffin, Murray, Care, Thomas and Perri (2008). Team leaders will also contribute to discussions about the usefulness of the assessment materials, in terms of teachers’ ability to communicate with each other and with other stakeholders (students, parents, principals, support professionals) about the learning progress of their students.

Reference

Griffin, P., Murray, L., Care, E., Thomas, A., & Perri, P. (2008). Developmental assessment: Lifting literacy through professional learning teams. Assessment Research Centre, The University of Melbourne.