The IEU recently took part in a consultation regarding the Preschool Outcomes Measure, which is a key reform under the Preschool Reform Agreement. It will be trialled nationally in 2025.
The following principles were agreed by state and territory Education Ministers:
•data collected will not be tied to funding or performance reporting
•data will be held at state and territory level but not at a national level
•all jurisdictions will be provided with an opportunity to collaborate to shape the new learning progressions and National Assessment Tool (NAT)
•implementation will support each jurisdiction’s choice to use existing age-appropriate formative assessment tools or to adopt the NAT
•services will be strongly encouraged, but not mandated, to use the new outcomes measure
•learning progressions will be aligned with existing benchmarks of quality preschool
•learning progressions will be inclusive to ensure they are suitable for use with First Nations children, children of all abilities and from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds.
National Assessment Tool
This is designed to consider/determine a child’s learning and development against the agreed learning progressions. Professional development and support material will be developed to assist in the use of the National Assessment Tool (NAT) by teachers and educators. Learning progressions will initially be developed in two areas:
1.Executive function, which includes working memory, flexible thinking, self-control and mental processes that enable planning, focusing of attention, remembering instructions and multi-tasking.
2.Oral language and literacy, including the use of language in a range of modes of communication such as listening, talking, writing and reading.
Here’s how the NAT fits into the planning cycle:
- observation
- NAT
- plan for each child
- child learns/develops
- back to observation.
Consultation
In 2024, consultation will be held with teachers, educators, early childhood education and care (ECEC) providers, ECEC representative bodies and an expert advisory group.
Consultations will also be sought with First Nations people, culturally and linguistically diverse groups, and regional and remote communities to develop the new national learning progressions and tool.
Consultation opportunities open in late 2023. To register your interest in participating, email: PreschoolOutcomesMeasure@education.gov.au
Trial begins
In 2025, the trial of the NAT begins. This will include professional development, a one-off funding contribution, including backfilling to complete assessments for learning, and project management cost for administration.
In summary, the NAT will not be tied to funding, performance reporting or assessment of teacher or centre quality and it is voluntary.
Further, states and territories can use a different tool if they choose, so any data collected will not measure the same tool nor the same outcomes. The NAT is expected to fit in with what teachers and educators are already required to do under the NQF, but requires training and documentation to implement. It will be inclusive so it can be used with all children, including those with additional needs and those from First Nations and culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds.
Issue of concern
The consultants did not seem receptive to an emphasis on developmental milestones, such as expecting that children two years of age should have a vocabulary of 50-200 words (in their home language) or they may need a referral for speech therapy and/or a developmental assessment.
Being ‘a confident and capable learner’ and ‘expressing their needs confidently’ is different for a child of three with a developmental delay compared with a typically developing five-year-old child.
How will these differences be captured? We are concerned the tool will be too open-ended and flexible, so that when used by various jurisdictions with completely different assessment tools, it will not work for its intended purpose – assessing preschool learning outcomes.
We are concerned that a change of federal government could lead to the Preschool Outcomes Measure being mandated and/or used to justify funding. After all, this is what happened with the Transition to School Statements in NSW..