Enhanced use of educational accountability data to monitor educational progress of Australian students with focus on Indigenous students

In Australia, under the National Assessment Plan, educational accountability testing in literacy and numeracy (NAPLAN) is undertaken with all students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 to monitor student achievement and inform policy. However, the extent to which these data have been analysed to report student progress is limited. This article reports a study analysing Year-3 and Year-5 NAPLAN reading and numeracy data, school and student information for a single student cohort from Queensland, Australia, to examine student achievement and progress. The analyses use longitudinal multilevel modelling, incorporating an enhanced approach for missing data imputation, given that such data frequently involve large amounts of missing data and failure to account properly for such missing data may bias interpretations of analyses. Further, statistical adjustments to deal with the impact of measurement error, an aspect not previously addressed in such analyses of data, are undertaken. A special focus of analyses is achievement of Australian Indigenous and non-Indigenous students. International and national data demonstrate a considerable achievement gap between these students. “Closing the gap” is a core Australian education equity policy, with NAPLAN data used as a primary indicator of policy impact. Overall, analyses indicate greater understanding of student progress for all students is available from Australian data if appropriate analyses are undertaken. However, analyses also demonstrate not only that the gap between Australian Indigenous and non-Indigenous student progress increases as they move through school but also diversity of achievement within the Indigenous student cohort. Implications for policy are considered

Uncertainty, error and risk in human clinical judgment: Introductory theoretical frameworks in paramedic practice

Paramedic judgment and decision-making, not unlike much of ambulance practice, have not been the subject of systematic, sustained research. There exists a paucity of research or inquiry that examines the mechanics of human error in paramedic practice, ambulance or pre-hospital settings. Little is known of how paramedics make judgments and decisions, and how paramedics deal with risk and uncertainty they commonly face in their tasks and the environment in which they work in. The literature and theories on judgment and decisionmaking are as extensive as they are controversial and the scientific community is yet to obtain a comprehensive understanding of the risk and uncertainty in judgment and decisionmaking. The following paper provides an introduction to the concepts of error, risk, and uncertainty in the context of paramedic judgment and decision-making, discussion of two analytic frameworks that examine such error, risk, and uncertainty, and commentary on their application to the paramedic setting

AE Aquarii represents a new subclass of Cataclysmic Variables

We analyze properties of the unique nova-like star AE Aquarii identified with a close binary system containing a red dwarf and a very fast rotating magnetized white dwarf. It cannot be assigned to any of the three commonly adopted sub-classes of Cataclysmic Variables: Polars, Intermediate Polars, and Accreting non-magnetized White Dwarfs. Our study has shown that the white dwarf in AE Aqr is in the ejector state and its dipole magnetic moment is $\mu ~ 1.5 \times 10^{34} G cm^3$. It switched into this state due to intensive mass exchange between the system components during a previous epoch. A high rate of disk accretion onto the white dwarf surface resulted in temporary screening of its magnetic field and spin-up of the white dwarf to its present spin period. Transition of the white dwarf to the ejector state had occurred at a final stage of the spin-up epoch as its magnetic field emerged from the accreted plasma due to diffusion. In the frame of this scenario AE Aqr represents a missing link in the chain of Polars evolution and the white dwarf resembles a recycled pulsar.Comment: accepted for publication in Astronomy Reports (July 2012

Equity in Assessment: Discrimination and Disability Issues from an Australian Legal Perspective

Assessment equity concerns all educational authorities and practitioners. When educators consider issues of equity, their predominant concern is accommodation of students with special needs, cultural issues, and creating alternative assessment activities that have equivalence to standard activities, so as not to advantage or disadvantage any student in their demonstration of knowledge. This paper examines equity issues in assessment from a legal perspective, drawing on case history from Australia, and based in discrimination and disability law. The paper is intended to assist authorities and practitioners to understand legal implications of educational assessment in order to promote practices that reduce the likelihood of legal claims and the resultant use of financial and human resources away from educational activities. However, the discussion of cases and judgements is also intended to raise issues of whether educational providers and authorities should be more conscionable in their consideration of educational equity and assessment.Arts, Education & Law Group, School of Education and Professional StudiesNo Full Tex

Four Core Differences in US and Australian Law and Application to Schools, Teachers and Students

Joy Cumming is a Professor of Education in the Faculty of Education and Arts at the Australian Catholic University, leading a research program on Assessment, Evaluation and Student Learning within the Learning Sciences Institute Australia. Originally a secondary school teacher in English and Mathematics, she has been involved in educational research for nearly 40 years. The origins of Australian and US law from the English system should indicate that the systems are similar. Both have statute and common law, both make assumptions of innocence and pursue adversarial approaches to establishing guilt or liability. In practice, especially for education law, four core differences, three from Constitutional law and one from public law, frame the impact of both education praxis and legal challenges. This presentation will provide an overview of Australian law, and differences from US law, with examples of the impact of the differences on education law challenges: Individual rights; Reserve powers; the Establishment Clause, and the Briginshaw principle for burden of proof

Four Core Differences in US and Australian Law and Application to Schools, Teachers and Students

Joy Cumming is a Professor of Education in the Faculty of Education and Arts at the Australian Catholic University, leading a research program on Assessment, Evaluation and Student Learning within the Learning Sciences Institute Australia. Originally a secondary school teacher in English and Mathematics, she has been involved in educational research for nearly 40 years. The origins of Australian and US law from the English system should indicate that the systems are similar. Both have statute and common law, both make assumptions of innocence and pursue adversarial approaches to establishing guilt or liability. In practice, especially for education law, four core differences, three from Constitutional law and one from public law, frame the impact of both education praxis and legal challenges. This presentation will provide an overview of Australian law, and differences from US law, with examples of the impact of the differences on education law challenges: Individual rights; Reserve powers; the Establishment Clause, and the Briginshaw principle for burden of proof

Legal and educational perspectives of equity in assessment

Arts, Education & Law Group, School of Education and Professional StudiesNo Full Tex

Senior secondary school assessment and standard-setting in Queensland, Australia: Social context and paradigmatic change

This article draws on three assessment paradigms – psychometrics, outcomes-based and curriculum-based assessment – to discuss paradigmatic changes in senior school assessment and achievement standard-setting in Queensland, Australia, over the last 50 years. These include radical reforms in 1970 from university-controlled examinations to school-based assessments applying normative standard-setting, to subsequent reforms in 1978 introducing competence(curriculum)-based assessment and standards. From 2019, a new reform introduces a combination of school-based and external assessment with procedures for establishing standards still in progress. Changes to Queensland assessment and standard-setting are discussed in terms of three preconditions for paradigm change – dissatisfaction, an alternative acceptable paradigm, and majority acceptance of change. Influence of paradigmatic origins of reformers is discussed. The amalgam of curriculum-based assessment and psychometric paradigms in the new Queensland system is considered in terms of theoretical compatibility and potential impact on the new standards