A scoping study relating Australian secondary schooling, educational disadvantage and assessment for learning

Dennis Alonzo, Sally Baker
University of New South Wales, Australia
Sally Knipe
Charles Darwin University, Australia
Christine Bottrell
REDthread Research, Australia

Assessment is a significant part of the education cycle with a vital role in aiding student achievement. The link between teachers' assessment for learning practices and improvement of student learning has been widely reported. There is also an extensive body of research, describing the intersection between academic performance on national and international tests, equity, and educational disadvantage. However, less is known about how a teacher's assessment for learning practices connects to educational equity outcomes. Therefore, there is a need to examine the use of assessment for learning practices that support the educational needs of disadvantaged students. This article reports on a scoping review critically examining academic journals and book chapters that have researched the intersection between these areas. Secondary education was selected as a focus because educational disadvantage in Australia increases during adolescence. One of the unexpected findings from this review was the lack of research undertaken in this area.
[ PDF full text for this article ]

Authors: Dr Dennis Alonzo is Senior Lecturer in Assessment, Evaluation and Teacher Education, School of Education, University of New South Wales Sydney, Australia. He researches the intersections of curriculum, assessment, equity, evaluation of educational programs, and teacher education and development. He works with educational systems and schools nationally and internationally to lead their assessment reforms focused on articulating policies, developing assessment resources, implementing professional development, and changing teachers' beliefs and practices. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8900-497X Email: d.alonzo@unsw.edu.au Dr Sally Baker formally at the University of New South Wales, is currently an Associate Professor of Migration and Education at the Australian National University. Sally's research interests centre on policy and practice related to language and literacies, particularly students' academic reading and writing 'in transition', students from refugee backgrounds, and broader issues of equity in higher education. Sally is founder and a Co-chair of the Australian Refugee Education Special Interest Group. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9143-5816 Email: sally.baker@anu.edu.au Dr Sally Knipe is an Associate Professor (Education) at Charles Darwin University, Northern Territory, Australia. Sally is an experienced teacher and academic with an extensive background in the leadership and development of teacher education programs, which includes working as a national assessor of initial teacher education programs. Sally has published several articles in the areas of teacher education as well as in the use of existing data. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6273-4331 Email: sally.knipe@cdu.edu.au Dr Christine Bottrell is currently with REDthread Research, Australia. She partners with communities and service providers to problem pose, designs collaborative approaches within identified contexts - community and corporate, builds sustainable practice, develops and conducts social and education research and evaluation, and designs and facilitates corporate learning and development, curriculum development, and strategic planning. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4023-6582 Email: cebottrell@gmail.com Please cite as: Alonzo, D., Baker, S., Knipe, S. & Bottrell, C. (2023). A scoping study relating Australian secondary schooling, educational disadvantage and assessment for learning. Issues in Educational Research, 33(3), 874-896. http://www.iier.org.au/iier33/alonzo.pdf