Stand-alone assessments
Online assessments with typically 5 to 15 questions for Stages 1 to 5 with a focus on key knowledge and skills in literacy, numeracy and other curriculum areas.
Assessment link
Stand-alone assessments and a Quick Reference Guide (QRG) are accessed via the Stand-alone assessments dashboard. The dashboard allows teachers to search for assessments by syllabus, stage, outcome, focus, content heading, or relevant learning progressions.
See the Running the assessment section for further information on administering the assessments and technical support.
Purpose of the assessment
Stand-alone assessments (previously known as Short assessments) are designed to assess targeted literacy and numeracy progressions as well as outcomes for English, mathematics and some other syllabuses. They may be implemented at any point in time throughout the teaching and learning cycle to gauge student understanding around particular concepts or skills. Stand-alone assessments complement other assessment practices and support explicit teaching.
They are designed to:
- identify student misconceptions
- support planning and programming
- provide immediate results and feedback to students and teachers
- complement other assessments
- provide links to teaching strategies.
Data provided
Stand-alone assessments provide specific actionable data related to key skills and concepts.
Focus areas
Stand-alone assessments align to strategically selected syllabus outcomes and/or learning progressions.
- English/literacy: textual concepts, comprehension, grammar, punctuation, spelling and vocabulary.
- Mathematics/numeracy: number and algebra, measurement and space, statistics and probability.
- History/literacy and numeracy: syllabus content, concepts, and inquiry skills.
- Geography/literacy and numeracy: syllabus content, concepts, inquiry skills and tools.
Results and feedback
Both students and teachers receive immediate results and feedback at time of completion:
- overall score and marked answers provided to students and teachers
- answer feedback provided to students with explanations of reasons for errors or possible misconceptions (immediate/delayed)
- samples of students’ working out collected in the numeracy assessment (optional).
These sources can form part of data triangulation practice.
Informing next steps
Stand-alone assessments can be used effectively at multiple levels.
Evidence assists with:
- identifying students’ understanding of key knowledge and skills in literacy, numeracy and specific learning areas
- selecting differentiation strategies based on student need.
Evidence assists with:
- identifying students who require targeted instruction
- identifying areas of focus for the class and opportunities to re-teach skills or content.
Running the assessment
Stand-alone assessments and a Quick Reference Guide (QRG) are accessed via the Stand-alone assessments dashboard. The dashboard provides links to:
- The assessments, administered online as Microsoft Forms. Teachers can choose to provide students with immediate feedback or turn it off in Settings and provide feedback another way.
- The QRG, provided for technical support, including instructions on how to create an offline PDF version of the assessments.
Support
For additional support, email online.assessments@det.nsw.edu.au