ABORIGINAL LEARNER ACHIEVEMENT - Leaders' Resource Actions for teachers - dlb
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ABORIGINAL
LEARNER
ACHIEVEMENT
Leaders’ Resource
Actions for teachers
Focus Strategies
Strengthen approaches In the English learning area, teachers share, trial and discuss
to oral language an extended range of listening, speaking and oral interaction
activities, micro-scaffolding where necessary.
In all learning areas, ‘dialogic teaching’ is discussed and
developed to involve students in deep learning in a way that
‘teacher talk’ alone cannot.
Strengthen reading English teachers review NAPLAN reading and PAT–R data to
instruction for identify the specific comprehension skills that need attention,
complexity of eg monitoring meaning; making logical connections across
academic meaning the text; summarising main ideas; inferring implied ideas.
In the English learning area, use reciprocal teaching to
strengthen comprehension skills.
In all learning areas, teachers strengthen the design of
before, during and after reading activities (BDA) with a
particular focus on ‘close reading’ as a during reading activity.
Focus writing Learning area teams map where key disciplinary assessment
instruction in key genres/text types are being developed through years 8–10
disciplinary genres towards the SACE.
Learning area teams review key written and multimodal
assessment tasks in terms of authentic purpose and
audience.
Teachers use the teaching and learning cycle to design
and scaffold the writing process for students from surface
to deep to transfer learning: build topic/field knowledge;
deconstruct model texts of the genre; collaboratively
compose parts of the text; write independently.
Quality school improvement planning
Acknowledgements
We acknowledge the traditional
custodians of the lands and waters
where our schools are located and
recognise their continuing connection
to country. We pay our respects to
Elders past and present, and extend
that respect to all Aboriginal peoples.
We would like to thank and acknowledge the following
contributors to the resource: Raising Aboriginal Learner
Achievement in Literacy and Numeracy.
ཛྷཛྷ The Aboriginal Learner Achievement Champions Group:
consisting of principals from 16 schools across the state, who
provided advice on the structure, content and implementation
of this resource.
ཛྷཛྷ The Aboriginal Learner Achievement Working Group:
consisting of the Manager for Aboriginal Education (Country),
4 Education Directors and Learning Improvement Division
Directors.
ཛྷཛྷ The principals and corporate leaders who provided advice to
the writers on improvement actions and strategies to raise
literacy and numeracy achievement for all Aboriginal learners.
“Literacy and numeracy are the foundation for every child and
young person’s ability to engage with learning. Together with
social and communication skills, they provide the basis for
successful engagement both within the school and outside
the local community.” (Aboriginal Education Strategy p14.)
Note: The Department for Education uses the term ‘Aboriginal’ to refer
to people who identify as Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islander, or both
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander. This term is preferred by Aboriginal
South Australians and the department. (Aboriginal Education Strategy)
RAISING ABORIGINAL
LEARNER ACHIEVEMENT
LITERACY AND NUMERACY
LEADERS’ RESOURCE
Quality school improvement planning
3
Aboriginal Learner Achievement | Leaders’ Resource | School improvement planning
External links
Aboriginal Education Moodle Resource
1
https://dlb.sa.edu.au/tlsmoodle/course/view.php?id=191
2 Aboriginal Education Resources website
https://edi.sa.edu.au/educating/curriculum/aboriginal-education
Aboriginal Education Strategy 2019 to 2029
3
https://www.education.sa.gov.au/teaching/projects-and-programs/
aboriginal-education-strategy
4 Aboriginal Perspectives – Developing your Understanding
https://tinyurl.com/yyezb7rb (plink login required)
Australian Curriculum
5
https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au
Best Advice: Intervention to address literacy and
6
numeracy learning difficulties
https://edi.sa.edu.au/educating/literacy-and-numeracy/best-advice-
series/best-advice-series-literacy
Best Advice Series – Literacy
7
https://edi.sa.edu.au/educating/literacy-and-numeracy/best-advice-
series/best-advice-series-literacy
8 Best Advice Series – Numeracy
https://edi.sa.edu.au/educating/literacy-and-numeracy/best-advice-
series/best-advice-series-numeracy
9 Improvement Dashboard
https://edi.sa.edu.au/educating/school-improvement/about-school-
improvement/dashboard
Literacy and Numeracy First – Primary Years Focus
10
https://edi.sa.edu.au/educating/literacy-and-numeracy/resources/
literacy-and-numeracy-funding
Literacy and Numeracy Guide books
11
https://edi.sa.edu.au/educating/school-improvement/guidebooks
12 Perspectives on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
Cultural Competence
https://www.education.sa.gov.au/doc/perspectives-aboriginal-and-
torres-strait-islander-cultural-competence
13 Reconciliation Plan 2018 to 2021
https://www.education.sa.gov.au/doc/reconciliation-action-
plan-2018-2021
14 South Australian Certificate of Education
https://www.sace.sa.edu.au
Teaching Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander EALD learners -
15
EALD Hub
https://edi.sa.edu.au/educating/curriculum/eald/support-for-
teachers/eald-hub
The Aboriginal Education Teacher 2018
16
https://dlb.sa.edu.au/tlsmoodle/course/view.php?id=191§ion=2
17 The School Improvement Handbook
https://edi.sa.edu.au/educating/school-improvement/planning-
templates-and-resources
18 Working Together - Cultural Awareness
https://tinyurl.com/yygkdvzm (plink login required)
Contents
Introduction 2
How to use this resource 4
Connection with the school improvement planning cycle 6
Principles guiding improvement actions for raising
Aboriginal learner achievement 8
Overview of the 6 key elements to raise
Aboriginal learner achievement 10
Six key element descriptions
Data-informed planning 14
Tracking and monitoring growth and achievement 18
Assuring consistent, high-quality classroom practice 22
Applying rigorous, evidence-based learning interventions 26
Engaging Aboriginal families as partners in
literacy and numeracy learning 30
Promoting the continuity of learning 34
Supporting Documents 38
References 38
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Aboriginal Learner Achievement | Leaders’ Resource | Quality school improvement planning
Introduction
The implementation of the school improvement planning cycle in
South Australian schools has provided the opportunity to address
the Department for Education’s 10-year aspiration of building a
world-class education system.
At the same time, the 2018 launch of the These elements are:
Aboriginal Education Strategy 2019 – 2029
reinforces that, as a world-class system, we must
raise the prominence of all Aboriginal learners in
our strategic improvement processes, so that they
Data-informed planning
can draw direct benefit from it. Importantly, the
Aboriginal Education Strategy is a commitment to
the Aboriginal community that the interests of all
Aboriginal learners will be at the forefront of the Tracking and monitoring growth
system’s planning and action. and achievement
This resource has been developed to support
school leaders in raising achievement in literacy and
numeracy for all Aboriginal learners. It is designed Assuring consistent, high-quality
to complement the school improvement planning classroom practice
cycle, and the Improvement Dashboard. It also
complements the evidence-informed, differentiated
practices described in the Literacy and Numeracy Applying rigorous, evidence-based
guidebooks (2018) and other Learning Improvement learning interventions
division resources. Thus, the purpose of this
resource is to raise the prominence of Aboriginal
learners in the strategic thinking of school leaders, Engaging families as partners in literacy
working with their various teams. and numeracy learning
This resource focuses on 6 interrelated elements
where school principals and their teams can ensure
that Aboriginal learners’ levels of achievement are Promoting the continuity of learning.
raised, particularly in literacy and numeracy.
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Aboriginal Learner Achievement | Leaders’ Resource | Quality school improvement planning
The resource affirms the importance of significantly as One Plan) for all Aboriginal learners in consultation
raising literacy and numeracy achievement for all with teachers and families.
Aboriginal learners as reflected in the Aboriginal
Education Strategy: Goal 2 – Aboriginal children There is evidence in recent years, that Aboriginal
and young people excel at school – and particularly learners have made modest progress towards
objective 1: 'Aboriginal children achieve growth in achieving the same literacy and numeracy outcomes
their learning, including Standard Australian English as their non-Aboriginal counterparts. Progress
and numeracy skills at or above their year appropriate however, has been slower and less consistent than
level.' expected. Overall, there are still significant challenges
in raising the achievement of Aboriginal learners in
The urgency of this improvement agenda is reflected reading, writing and numeracy. Through the use
in the strategy’s 10-year goal, namely that: 'Aboriginal of this resource as well as the Aboriginal Learner
children meet or exceed the same standards of Achievement Quality Matrix and the Aboriginal
achievement for literacy and numeracy as non- Learner Achievement Action Template, principals
Aboriginal students.' can assure the Aboriginal community that Aboriginal
learners receive the constant and flexible support
The Aboriginal Education Strategy states: 'Literacy needed to bolster their literacy and numeracy
and numeracy skills are the foundation for every achievements.
child and young person’s ability to engage with
learning'. Literacy and numeracy are a means to a NB: The term ‘families’ includes many different carer roles,
broader end in all areas of learning (including the including grandparents, custodial parents, other relatives
Australian Curriculum, the Early Years Learning and, where relevant, the wider community.
Framework, the South Australian Certificate of
Education and Vocational Education pathways).
This resource will provide leaders with the tools
to support and strengthen their current strategies
for raising Aboriginal achievement, within the
school’s literacy and numeracy priorities, whilst
continuing to build a culturally responsive approach
to improvement. The subsequent conversations and
planning for literacy and numeracy achievement can
also help to inform the decisions made in developing
and implementing One Child One Plans (referred to
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Aboriginal Learner Achievement | Leaders’ Resource | Quality school improvement planning
How to use this resource
This resource has been developed based on research, and
evidence of strategies to amplify learner achievements in
literacy and numeracy, and draws on the experience and advice
of principals from a wide range of South Australian primary,
secondary and R-12 schools.
Accompanying this resource are 2 quality assurance
ABORIGINAL LEARNER ACHIEVEMENT
tools used to: QUALITY MATRIX
ཛྷཛྷ gauge the effectiveness of the ways in which Key Element 1 Guiding
Questions
Indicators of Degree of Implementation: What evidence can leaders provide to show progress in each element?
Not evident Low Medium High
schools are applying relevant strategies to raise How does the
school effectively
collect data
for Aboriginal
An assessment and reporting
schedule for Aboriginal
learners is not in place or not
documented.
An assessment and reporting
schedule is in place and
captures data for some
Aboriginal learners.
A documented assessment and
reporting schedule – including
more ‘fine grained’ assessments
– is flexibly applied to capture
A comprehensive, documented
and regularly reviewed system
for collecting, recording and
managing data is in place,
the literacy and numeracy achievement of
learners? all Aboriginal learner progress, which aligns with literacy
and directly informs literacy and numeracy improvement
and numeracy improvement planning at whole-school, team
planning. and teacher levels.
Aboriginal learners
Data Informed
Planning How does the A data management system is A local data management A comprehensive data A comprehensive data
school support not evident, not consistently system, including the management system, management system is
The collection and
deep analysis used or doesn’t inform Improvement Dashboard, is including the Improvement embedded, visible and highly
strategic analysis
ཛྷཛྷ
of individual planning for Aboriginal used to compare individual Dashboard, is used for in- adopted by all staff to drive:
of assessment data
Aboriginal learners. Aboriginal learner data against depth analysis of Aboriginal
assist in establishing actions, roles and resources
to inform literacy — high-quality data analysis
learner data? standards (SEA). learner progress and
and numeracy — regular monitoring of
achievement. This analysis is
improvement levels of achievement and
shared across the school and
priorities for progress
informs actions.
required to implement improvement.
Aboriginal learners at — visible evidence of ‘fine
the school, team and grained’ growth.
teacher level. This directly leads to specific
The effective use actions aligned to the school’s
of data to inform improvement planning.
These tools are:
school decisions
and teacher practice How does the Aboriginal learners are Planning and actions for Aboriginal learners are Leaders, teams and all teachers
for each Aboriginal school ensure not prominent within literacy and numeracy prominent within literacy can articulate how Aboriginal
learner. Aboriginal improvement planning improvement relate to some and numeracy improvement learners are prominent within
learners are processes. Aboriginal learners. planning for teams and improvement planning, and
prominent in teachers. can explain the impact on their
ཛྷཛྷ
improvement actions, at a range of levels.
planning?
The Aboriginal Learner Achievement Quality
Matrix
ཛྷཛྷ The Aboriginal Learner Achievement Action
Template
The matrix is divided into 4 evidence-reliant sections
to assist judgements. These consist of:
Aboriginal Learner Achievement Quality Matrix
ཛྷཛྷ Not evident: where there is no evidence to
This describes the various levels of quality by which demonstrate levels of organisation or adoption.
schools have applied each of the 6 key elements.
Principals will use this matrix with their relevant
ཛྷཛྷ Low: where there is some evidence to
demonstrate levels of organisation and/or there is
leadership and teaching teams to drive evidence- evidence that some staff have adopted these.
based discussions about the degree to which each
of the key elements are evident in practice at the ཛྷཛྷ Medium: where there is considerable evidence of
school. In this sense, it is both an evaluative tool documentation with some annotation to display
and a provocation. sound levels of organisation and clear evidence of
widespread adoption by staff.
Within the matrix, the types of evidence referred to
include various documents, schedules, schemas,
ཛྷཛྷ High: where there is a comprehensive set of
publications that are well-annotated and reflect
tools, artefacts, role statements and publications, highly complex organisational processes and clear
that capture intended actions as well as the degree evidence of all staff adoption and adherence.
to which these are well-understood and adopted
by staff. Each element is accompanied by a set of Schools are encouraged to prioritise and address 1 or
guiding questions that can generate and facilitate 2 key elements, then identify and implement a set of
discussions. improvement actions.
4
Aboriginal Learner Achievement | Leaders’ Resource | Quality school improvement planningAboriginal Learner Achievement Action Template
This enables principals and their teams to use the
results of their quality audit as the driver to address Six essential interrelated elements of a school-wide system designed to raise literacy and numeracy achievement for Aboriginal learners.
priority areas for improvement. The template: Key Element 1 Guiding Questions Area of focus Action(s)
Person
responsible
Resources /
timeline
Evidence /
Achieved
ཛྷཛྷ
How does the school
identifies a small number of focus areas based on
effectively collect data for
Aboriginal learners?
audit results Data Informed
How does the school
support deep analysis of
ཛྷཛྷ
individual Aboriginal
Planning learner data?
determines agreement on actions that can The collection and
strategic analysis of
assessment data to inform
literacy and numeracy
enhance the quality of work in the focus area
improvement priorities for How does the school
Aboriginal learners at the ensure Aboriginal learners
school, team and teacher are prominent in
level. improvement planning?
The effective use of data
ཛྷཛྷ
to inform school decisions
establishes the person or team responsible for
and teacher practice for
each Aboriginal learner.
the actions
ཛྷཛྷ identifies the time and resources required.
The use of the template, and progress achieved from
it, can then be re-evaluated using the matrix after a
specified period of time. The template reinforces that
each school will make decisions in this area based on
their context and on numbers of Aboriginal learners.
These tools should be used in conjunction with the
advice contained in the resource.
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Aboriginal Learner Achievement | Leaders’ Resource | Quality school improvement planningConnection with the school
improvement planning cycle
The school improvement planning cycle is a central component
of the department’s school improvement model.
It focuses professional conversations on the This resource will enable school leaders, in
teacher-learner relationship in every classroom consultation with teachers and community
through relevant challenges of practice. This members, to clearly design data-informed tracking
resource complements the cycle by directing and monitoring processes that identify the literacy
leaders to consider other aspects of improvement and numeracy needs of Aboriginal children
that can add value to classroom practice, and young people within their educational and
particularly for students with complex needs. In community context. It is paramount that the learning
essence, this resource aims to keep the interests of needs of Aboriginal students, (particularly in the areas
Aboriginal learners prominent in any improvement of literacy and numeracy), are prominent within each
conversation, whether it is at the classroom, the school.
team or the whole-school level.
When read in conjunction with the Aboriginal Learner
The school improvement planning cycle provides Achievement Quality Matrix, this resource provides
school leaders with the means to ensure that advice on how to identify and implement a set of
their evidence-based goals for improvement are actions at the whole-school, team and classroom
translated into every classroom, and that teachers are level. These documents are complementary and will
effectively supported to ensure classroom strategies benefit the school’s literacy and numeracy priorities
are applied for maximum impact. At the same time, and associated classroom strategies within the
we know that the complexity of the educational school improvement cycle.
needs for many Aboriginal learners requires a more
intensive approach. It also requires a tailored set of The improvement strategies identified in this
strategies that add value to classroom practice, by: resource complement, and build on, research-based
Department for Education resources already in place
ཛྷཛྷ increasing the prominence of Aboriginal learners across schools that include:
in school improvement conversations
ཛྷཛྷ The School Improvement Handbook
ཛྷཛྷ better aligning roles and resources to those
actions that have greatest impact ཛྷཛྷ Literacy and Numeracy guidebooks
ཛྷཛྷ building flexibility into systems to cater for ཛྷཛྷ Best Advice Series: Numeracy
Aboriginal learners who are experiencing complex ཛྷཛྷ Best Advice Series: Literacy
circumstances
ཛྷཛྷ Literacy and Numeracy First document
ཛྷཛྷ maintaining an intensity of effort in the face of
ཛྷཛྷ Improvement Dashboard
illness and other barriers to learning
All of these resources are available on
ཛྷཛྷ guiding proactive discussions about relevant
https://edi.sa.edu.au
support mechanisms
ཛྷཛྷ raising learners’ influence when describing their
learning goals
ཛྷཛྷ ensuring that families are knowledgeable about
their child’s progress and support.
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Aboriginal Learner Achievement | Leaders’ Resource | Quality school improvement planning7 Aboriginal Learner Achievement | Leaders’ Resource | Quality school improvement planning
Principles guiding
improvement actions for raising
Aboriginal learner achievement
The Aboriginal Education Strategy 2019 – 2029 outlines
5 principles to guide the implementation of the strategy
in schools and preschools.
These principles underpin the strategic actions Culture and identity
reflected in this resource and in the quality tools,
and thereby influence the thinking, planning and We will acknowledge, value and respect
implementation of strategies that support the Aboriginal knowledge, wisdom and expertise,
literacy and numeracy achievement of including our existing Aboriginal staff and learners,
Aboriginal learners. and we will adopt local approaches to teaching
Aboriginal histories, culture and languages.
Highest expectations For raised Aboriginal learner achievement in
literacy and numeracy, this means that schools
We will have the highest expectations for acknowledge that Aboriginal learners bring a
Aboriginal learners’ achievement. wealth of language, culture and experiences to
For raised Aboriginal learner achievement in their literacy and numeracy learning.
literacy and numeracy, this means that those
expectations will be articulated through relevant Community engagement
learning goals established with students and
We will hear, seek and respect the voices of
their families. It also means that principals
Aboriginal people and their representative
and their staff must articulate and model high
organisations, and encourage participation of
expectations of themselves in the interests of
Aboriginal learners, parents, carers, families and
Aboriginal learners.
communities across our services.
Accessibility and responsiveness For raised Aboriginal learner achievement in
literacy and numeracy, this means that families
We will partner with families and communities are included as meaningful partners in supporting
to create culturally safe and inclusive learning each student's learning.
environments, identify opportunities for growth,
and respond to barriers for Aboriginal learners.
For raised Aboriginal learner achievement in
literacy and numeracy, this means ensuring that
families are actively and respectfully included
in discussions about each child’s progress,
achievements and future goals.
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Aboriginal Learner Achievement | Leaders’ Resource | Quality school improvement planningAccountability ཛྷཛྷ a safe and stable learning environment that
accepts and respect all learners, and provides a
We will be transparent and accountable
culturally relevant pedagogy, while reinforcing
for improving learning outcomes, using
high expectations, resilience and perseverance
allocated resources to support the growth and
development for all Aboriginal learners. ཛྷཛྷ the provision of efficient procedures to access
support services and site-specific programs that
For raised Aboriginal learner achievement in promote learner engagement and attendance,
literacy and numeracy, this means that principals including the use of mentoring programs and
demonstrate their commitment to each Aboriginal vocational pathways.
learner and embrace the responsibility for
These enabling factors build on the 5 principles, and
ensuring that relevant improvement strategies
support the development of a strong, consistent
are properly implemented. Principals also ensure
whole-school approach, which is culturally sensitive,
that their staff equally embrace responsibility for
contextual, and features:
enacting improvement strategies at the whole-
school, team and classroom levels. ཛྷཛྷ quality pedagogy
ཛྷཛྷ strong organisational processes
Research shows that broader enabling factors
positively impact on improvement strategies
ཛྷཛྷ practice agreements
employed to raise Aboriginal attendance and learner ཛྷཛྷ role clarity
achievement (ACER 2013). School communities have a range of contexts
and include variations in enrolments, location,
Advice from South Australian school leaders community involvement and resources. Nonetheless,
reinforced the importance of 4 important enabling all learners deserve to access quality pedagogy and
factors necessary to develop a truly supportive curriculum support networks, learning environments
learning environment that not only meets the needs and experiences that are learner-centred and
of Aboriginal learners but can also directly impact on contextual, in order to achieve growth and success.
attendance. These are: This resource, and associated quality tools, are
ཛྷཛྷ a strong professional culture with culturally framed in ways that reinforce the importance of
responsive professional learning and high levels of school leaders focusing on all Aboriginal learners,
professional capacity irrespective of enrolment numbers.
ཛྷཛྷ a relational and culturally respectful school
environment that recognises the languages,
knowledge and experience of Aboriginal people
9
Aboriginal Learner Achievement | Leaders’ Resource | Quality school improvement planningOverview of the 6 key
elements to raise Aboriginal
learner achievement
Reaching high achievement targets for Aboriginal learners
requires consideration of how the school supports continuous
improvement, and how well the school functions as a system
of interdependent elements.
This resource is centred on 6 essential interrelated The six interrelated elements are:
elements of a school-wide system, which together
form the foundation for schools to explicitly
improve literacy and numeracy outcomes for
Aboriginal learners. Guiding questions for each Data-informed planning
of the elements provide direction for school
planning and focused actions. Each element is
not meant to be read independently, but in
reference to each other. They add value to existing Tracking and monitoring growth
literacy and numeracy planning and strategies and achievement
within each school.
A 1-page synopsis of the 6 key elements is provided Assuring consistent, high-quality
for your reference in the supporting documents classroom practice
section of this resource.
Applying rigorous, evidence-based
learning interventions
Engaging families as partners in literacy
and numeracy learning
Promoting the continuity of learning.
10
Aboriginal Learner Achievement | Leaders’ Resource | Quality school improvement planningTracking and monitoring
Data-informed planning
growth and achievement
The collection and strategic analysis of assessment The ongoing monitoring of learning growth and
data to inform literacy and numeracy improvement achievement in literacy and numeracy for Aboriginal
priorities for Aboriginal learners at the school, team learners to inform improvement actions and
and teacher level. The effective use of data to inform goal-setting.
school decisions and teacher practice for each
Aboriginal learner. Guiding questions:
How does the school track, monitor and review the
Guiding questions: growth and achievement of every Aboriginal learner?
How does the school effectively collect data for
Aboriginal learners? How does the monitoring of progress inform
Aboriginal learner literacy and numeracy goals?
How does the school support deep analysis of
individual learner data?
How does the school ensure Aboriginal learners are
prominent in improvement planning?
11
Aboriginal Learner Achievement | Leaders’ Resource | Quality school improvement planningAssuring consistent, high Applying rigorous, evidence-
quality classroom practice based learning interventions
The continuous building of high-quality practice Effective and targeted learner interventions
to deliver on whole-school commitments to that support and/or extend Aboriginal learner
action that will directly impact on Aboriginal achievement.
achievement.
Guiding question:
This is supported by relevant professional learning,
together with performance development systems How does the school effectively provide literacy
and processes. and numeracy intervention for identified Aboriginal
learners?
Guiding questions:
How does the school ensure a collective
‘commitment to action’ towards raising the
achievement of all Aboriginal learners in literacy and
numeracy?
How does the school continuously build teacher
capacity for raising literacy and numeracy
achievement of Aboriginal learners?
How do the school’s performance development
processes ensure quality practice is evident for
every Aboriginal learner?
12
Aboriginal Learner Achievement | Leaders’ Resource | Quality school improvement planningEngaging Aboriginal families The following section aims to provide more detail
as partners in literacy and and information about each of the 6 key elements,
as well as descriptions of how they further amplify
numeracy learning Aboriginal learner achievement in literacy and
numeracy.
Data-informed conversations with Aboriginal The information relates to each key element.
families about the growth, achievement and However, it is not exhaustive, and comprehensive
successes of their child, and the strategies to best planning requires leaders and teachers to
support them. contextualise the strategy to meet the needs of their
learners, school and community. The Literacy and
Guiding questions:
Numeracy guidebooks also provide further direction,
How does the school ensure that there are improvement strategies, and support for leaders in
culturally respectful and purposeful conversations their improvement planning journey.
with families about:
Each of the following sections contains a:
- learner progress and achievement based on
- re-statement of the overall description and
evidence?
guiding questions
- the support provided by the school for the
- brief explanation of relevant terms
learner?
- description of why this element is important
- the ways in which the family can support the
learner’s growth in literacy and numeracy? - summary of relevant improvement actions
- description of possible intended impacts
- set of other things to consider.
Each of these supports the implementation of the
Promoting the Aboriginal Learner Achievement Quality Matrix and
completion of the Aboriginal Learner Achievement
continuity of learning Action Template.
The comprehensive sharing of detailed information
about each Aboriginal learner's progress when there
is a change of teacher or school.
Guiding questions:
How does the school facilitate the effective sharing
of information about each Aboriginal learner’s
progress within the school?
How does the school organise for the sharing of
literacy and numeracy information as part of
cross-site transition processes?
13
Aboriginal Learner Achievement | Leaders’ Resource | Quality school improvement planningKey element 1
Data-informed planning
Data-informed planning refers to the collection and strategic
analysis of assessment data to inform literacy and numeracy
improvement priorities and practice for Aboriginal learners at
the school, team and teacher level.
Schools need to implement and utilise well-defined Important terms
data management systems and practices, along
with structures that support the deep analysis and The Aboriginal Learner Achievement Quality Matrix
effective use of data. Teachers should have access for this element refers to a number of terms that are
to key data sets and be supported to inform quality explained below.
teaching practice for each Aboriginal learner.
Assessment and reporting schedule is a document
that captures all relevant assessment collection
processes and plots them with timelines against
each term. It outlines the responsibilities for
assessing, collecting and managing relevant data.
Guiding Questions Data management systems are electronic means
of storing, describing and analysing data in a range
of ways. They are compatible with the Improvement
How does the school effectively Dashboard.
collect data for Aboriginal learners?
Literacy and numeracy planning process is a
How does the school support deep whole-school improvement plan that describes
analysis of individual learner data? literacy and numeracy learning goals and actions.
Fine-grained assessment refers to assessments
How does the school ensure that examine very specific aspects of learning (eg
Aboriginal learners are prominent in phonological awareness as an aspect of reading).
improvement planning?
14
Aboriginal Learner Achievement | Leaders’ Resource | Quality school improvement planningSchool level data analysis should be
about helping schools understand if they
are achieving their purpose and guiding
principles and meeting the needs of all
students—and, if not why not? (Bernhardt 1998)
Why data-informed planning is important
Data-informed conversations are imperative for It is essential that data literacy support is provided to
successful curriculum planning to ensure the staff to understand and establish well-documented
educational and wellbeing needs for each learner data collection and analysis processes that will:
are met within the school context.
ཛྷཛྷ identify and capture data for all Aboriginal learners
A comprehensive and well-structured data collection ཛྷཛྷ inform strategic planning aligned to improvement
process will inform improvement goals and provide goals and targets
information about each Aboriginal learner’s literacy
and numeracy achievement, in addition to wellbeing ཛྷཛྷ inform teacher practice
information. The data collection and analysis will ཛྷཛྷ target teacher capacity building
support the identification of learners who require ཛྷཛྷ support the formation of learning interventions
additional support in literacy and numeracy.
ཛྷཛྷ enable setting of aspirational goals for Aboriginal
The role of leaders is essential to the timely learners
collection, analysis and maintenance of data systems ཛྷཛྷ identify and share strengths of each Aboriginal
and requires a relentless focus on improving literacy learner.
and numeracy outcomes for Aboriginal learners.
Key
Elements
15
Aboriginal Learner Achievement | Leaders’ Resource | Quality school improvement planningImprovement actions
Schools will use a range of systems and ཛྷཛྷ Ensure that teachers and support staff
processes for data collection and analysis to clearly understand the learning data for each
inform and guide planning. Leaders will drive Aboriginal learner. This may include the use of
these processes and support teachers at an a ‘Data Wall’ to make the data ‘visible’. Data is
individual and team level to analyse data, compared against standards and benchmarks
by allocating time and providing relevant with regular scheduled conversations during
professional learning. professional learning team meetings.
ཛྷཛྷ Support teachers in analysing and using
Effective improvement actions learner data to:
ཛྷཛྷ Establish a school-wide assessment and - determine and document appropriate
reporting schedule that is ongoing and literacy/numeracy goals and document
includes department-required assessments these goals in each Aboriginal learner’s
and appropriate school-determined One Plan
assessments. - inform teaching practice.
ཛྷཛྷ Build individual Aboriginal learner profiles. ཛྷཛྷ Create rigorous school systems and processes
These are drawn from student information and to identify Aboriginal learners at risk of not
includes strengths, interests, potential barriers achieving expected growth in their learning,
to learning, family considerations, and student and any relevant intervention programs and
performance reports containing assessment strategies.
results, evidence of growth, intervention
provided, and attendance and behaviour data. ཛྷཛྷ Provide the necessary resource allocation to
ensure appropriate and effective support is
received by Aboriginal learners.
N.B. The Department for Education One Plan is an online personalised learning plan that contains information to
support a child’s inclusion and achievement in school.
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Aboriginal Learner Achievement | Leaders’ Resource | Quality school improvement planningIntended impact of data-informed planning
ཛྷཛྷ Learning data is readily accessible. ཛྷཛྷ Outcomes in perception data surveys (eg attitudes
to learning and sense of belonging and future) are
ཛྷཛྷ Aboriginal learners are prominent in improvement
improved.
planning, with identified learning goals recorded
in One Plan.‘Baseline’ data in relation to defined ཛྷཛྷ An increase in the level of engagement is
benchmarks and standards is identified. achieved, and lead to improved learning
outcomes for Aboriginal students in all areas of
ཛྷཛྷ Specific learning needs of individual Aboriginal
learning across the curriculum.
learners is identified.
ཛྷཛྷ Access to additional support from the ཛྷཛྷ Aboriginal learners are engaged in data
department’s student support services as required. conversations.
ཛྷཛྷ Support is provided for teachers to provide for
multiple entry and exit points for learners along
learning continuums.
Other things to consider
ཛྷཛྷ It is acknowledged that some students arrive
at a school with little learning data. The same
complexities that lead to low levels of literacy and
numeracy may also lead to little or no assessment
of learning.
ཛྷཛྷ How will you manage continual access to,
and administration of all assessment regimes
throughout the year, to cater for ongoing
enrolments and transience?
ཛྷཛྷ Data relating to Aboriginal learners, like any learner,
has to be treated respectfully and confidentially
with all relevant permissions sought and applied.
17
Aboriginal Learner Achievement | Leaders’ Resource | Quality school improvement planningKey element 2
Tracking and monitoring growth
and achievement
This element refers to the ongoing monitoring of learning
growth and achievement in literacy and numeracy for Aboriginal
learners to inform improvement actions and goal setting.
This means that all schools will have effective systems and processes in place to track and monitor the
progress of all Aboriginal learners. A collaborative approach is established to analyse learning data and also to
determine effective strategies for improvement in literacy and numeracy. Well-defined monitoring processes
will support educators and learners in determining and evaluating individual learning goals.
Important terms
Guiding Questions The Aboriginal Learner Achievement Quality Matrix
for this element refers to a number of terms that are
explained below.
How does the school track,
Monitoring of progress is the deliberate scrutiny,
monitor and review the growth and
evaluation and review of Aboriginal literacy and
achievement of every Aboriginal
numeracy data
learner?
Standards and benchmarks refer to the standards
How does the monitoring of progress and benchmark levels stated in assessments
inform Aboriginal learner literacy and conducted by schools. This includes the South
numeracy goals? Australian Department for Education, Standard
for Educational Achievement (SEA), Australian
Curriculum Achievement Standards and South
Australian Certificate of Education (SACE)
standards. Assessments conducted by schools with
stated benchmark levels include the Progressive
Achievement Tests (PAT), Running Record reading
levels, the National Assessment Program – Literacy
and Numeracy (NAPLAN) and other school-based
assessments.
Literacy and numeracy goals refer to 2 types of
learning goals. Both are specific, measurable,
attainable, realistic, time-bound, agreed upon and
reviewed: ie SMARTAR.
1. Summative learning goals outline the intended
learning outcomes for each Aboriginal learner.
These are documented or recorded in the
learner’s One Plan
2. Formative learning goals provide the next steps in
learning for each Aboriginal student.
18
Aboriginal Learner Achievement | Leaders’ Resource | Quality school improvement planningCollaborative work with teams
of colleagues, sometimes the whole
staff, sometimes with smaller groups,
supported by school leadership, builds a
context in which teachers can interpret
and use data more effectively (Meiers 2008).
Why tracking each learner’s growth and achievement
is important
The key purpose of tracking student achievement ཛྷཛྷ South Australian Certificate of Education (SACE)
and growth is to identify what is working and what Summary Report
needs to change – in a timeframe that enables
effective change and in a way that supports each
ཛྷཛྷ External School Review Framework and Report
student to move forward in their learning. ཛྷཛྷ Assessment results (eg phonics screening check
and BrightPath data)
An integral part of tracking and monitoring is the
consideration of factors that impact on learning, ཛྷཛྷ Australian Curriculum Achievement Standard
such as family and community, attendance, student A-E grades
behaviour, motivations and aspirations, strengths, and ཛྷཛྷ Formative and summative assessment results
areas of need. ཛྷཛྷ Feedback from Aboriginal learners about
South Australian Department for Education data themselves as learners
systems, and local data systems, enable schools ཛྷཛྷ Attendance, behaviour and wellbeing data
to track the growth and achievement of every ཛྷཛྷ Anecdotal information
Aboriginal learner and to build a comprehensive but
individualised learning profile. These data systems Schools should establish clear systems and
include: processes which support individual and team
analysis and the tracking and monitoring of
ཛྷཛྷ Improvement Dashboard individual learner data to inform action.
ཛྷཛྷ Education Dashboard
ཛྷཛྷ Progressive Achievement Test (PAT) online
assessment and reporting system
ཛྷཛྷ Running Record data
ཛྷཛྷ National Assessment Program Literacy and
Numeracy (NAPLAN) data
Key
Elements
19
Aboriginal Learner Achievement | Leaders’ Resource | Quality school improvement planningN.B. The Department for Education One Plan is an online personalised learning plan that contains information to
support a child’s inclusion and achievement in school.
Improvement actions
Effective improvement actions ཛྷཛྷ Provide data literacy training and guidance to
support staff to analyse data (ie What is the
ཛྷཛྷ Establish systems and processes to track and data showing? Why is this so? What do we
monitor growth for all Aboriginal learners. need to do now?).
ཛྷཛྷ Use efficient and comprehensive data ཛྷཛྷ Establish Student Review Teams and identify
management systems – which includes the their purpose and function, track Aboriginal
Improvement Dashboard – managed by learner achievement and growth, and
identified key personnel. implement actions in response.
ཛྷཛྷ Provide strong leadership to drive the ཛྷཛྷ Build-in meaningful and timely reviews of
implementation and monitoring processes. programs and strategies.
ཛྷཛྷ Assign responsibilities to key personnel ཛྷཛྷ Determine the level of information and data
(individuals or teams). sharing with specific groups (ie leadership,
ཛྷཛྷ Establish clear, robust, documented, school- professional learning communities, classroom
wide processes for tracking, monitoring and teachers, Aboriginal learners, families).
review (who, what, how, when?). ཛྷཛྷ Involve Aboriginal learners in tracking and
ཛྷཛྷ Schedule opportunities for regular and monitoring their own learning.
authentic tracking and monitoring by
individuals and teams of teachers.
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Aboriginal Learner Achievement | Leaders’ Resource | Quality school improvement planningIntended impacts of effectively tracking
growth and achievement.
ཛྷཛྷ Documented and clearly defined whole-school ཛྷཛྷ There are regular and scheduled discussions and
monitoring and review processes support teachers, review of Aboriginal student data.
students and families in determining learning goals.
ཛྷཛྷ Learner growth is clearly identified and shared with
ཛྷཛྷ Learning strategies and interventions with the students and their families.
greatest positive impact are identified and
broadened accordingly.
ཛྷཛྷ Comprehensive data and information is readily
available for transition, to support the continuity
ཛྷཛྷ With constant tracking and monitoring of progress, of learning.
students don’t ‘fall between the cracks’, as learning
needs are identified and strategies implemented.
Other things to consider
ཛྷཛྷ Establishing clear procedures for tracking and
monitoring growth and achievement of students
with high mobility is difficult.
However, schools should endeavour to identify
opportunities to access and distribute continuous
learning data with neighbouring and transitioning
schools. This may include access to assessment
schedules and support services visits.
21
Aboriginal Learner Achievement | Leaders’ Resource | Quality school improvement planningKey element 3
Assuring consistent, high-quality
classroom practice
This element refers to building high-quality practice to deliver
on whole-school commitments to action that will directly
impact on Aboriginal achievement. It also supports the relevant
professional learning and performance development systems
and processes.
This means that there is a widely shared, reviewed Important terms
and agreed set of practices, articulated by
teachers and consistently applied across classes. The Aboriginal Learner Achievement Quality Matrix
A comprehensive and regularly reviewed set of for this element refers to a number of terms that are
capacity-building strategies is connected to site explained below.
priorities. Documented performance development
Agreed practices to raise Aboriginal learner
processes are scheduled, and clearly connect
achievement are the whole-school statements of
teacher practice to raising achievement in literacy
practice that support high expectations and ensure
and numeracy for Aboriginal learners.
consistency of language and practice across all
classes.
Continuous building of teacher capacity is the
Guiding Questions ongoing professional growth of teachers in
developing quality practice and understanding of
Aboriginal learners.
How does the school ensure a Performance development processes are the
collective ‘commitment to action’ ongoing practices that support staff at all levels to
towards raising the achievement of continuously improve their knowledge and practice.
all Aboriginal learners in literacy and This ensures that their work is in line with school
numeracy? expectations and in raising each Aboriginal learner’s
achievement in literacy and numeracy.
How does the school continuously
build teacher capacity for raising
literacy and numeracy achievement
of Aboriginal learners?
How do the school’s performance
development processes ensure
quality practice is evident for every
Aboriginal learner?
22
Aboriginal Learner Achievement | Leaders’ Resource | Quality school improvement planningWithin schools, quality of teachers
and teaching has been established as
the most important factor in improving
students’ learning (Hattie, 2002; Leigh & Ryan, 2008;
Rowe, 2003; Rowe, 2006).
Why is assuring consistent, high-quality classroom
practice important?
Research suggests that teacher quality accounts for Performance Development
30 per cent of the variance in student performance A performance development culture has a clear
(Hattie 2013).
focus on improving teaching as a powerful means
of improving learner outcomes. Schools establish
Commitment to Action processes to develop a shared understanding of
To maximise the achievement of Aboriginal learners, quality practice through professional dialogue,
a collective commitment to action is needed. This observation, constructive feedback, professional
includes a visible, whole-school approach, including learning and coaching.
consistency and coherence in teaching pedagogy,
curriculum content, and shared language. A ‘team’ Effective performance development processes that
with a shared vision, aspirational expectations, and are directly linked to improving classroom teaching
an unrelenting focus and commitment, has greater have been shown to increase teacher effectiveness
ability to significantly influence and improve learning by as much as 20 - 30%. (Jensen and Reichl 2011)
outcomes for Aboriginal learners.
'Studies suggest that students with a highly effective
When teachers hold aspirational expectations for
teacher learn twice as much as students with a less
all Aboriginal students, they support them to build
effective teacher' (Australian Institute for Teaching and School
self-esteem, increase confidence and improve Leadership).
achievement.
Effective schools have a shared accountability
and responsibility in raising the achievement of all
Aboriginal learners and closely attend to the needs of
students requiring extra assistance.
Continuously Building Teacher Capacity
Consistent, high quality teaching does not occur
by chance. It requires processes for continuously
building the capacity of staff to meet the needs of Key
individual teachers in alignment with school priorities. Elements
Effective teachers provide supportive and strong
relationship-based learning environments. They use
learner data to inform their planning and practice,
and aspire for Aboriginal learners to attain the highest
educational standards. The ongoing professional
growth of teachers in continuously developing quality
practice, cultivates a growth mindset leading to
improved learning outcomes for Aboriginal learners.
23
Aboriginal Learner Achievement | Leaders’ Resource | Quality school improvement planningN.B. The Department for Education One Plan is an online personalised learning plan that contains information to
support a child’s inclusion and achievement in school.
Improvement actions
Effective improvement actions ཛྷཛྷ Establish ‘Professional Learning Communities’
supporting a model for team collaboration
ཛྷཛྷ Develop a collective commitment to and inquiry.
improvement, and document this in
statements which drive direction and action ཛྷཛྷ Use classroom ‘walk throughs’ as part of
instructional leadership.
(agreed vision, mission, beliefs, values,
commitment). ཛྷཛྷ Develop effective performance development
processes which include plans, goals, actions
ཛྷཛྷ Implement whole-school approaches and
and feedback closely aligned with school
impress high expectations, through:
improvement priorities.
- consistent approaches and/or programs
ཛྷཛྷ Differentiate literacy and numeracy to cater
- clarity and coherence in expectations for individual learning needs. (Refer to the
- shared language. Best Advice Series – Literacy, Best Advice
series – Numeracy, Literacy and Numeracy
ཛྷཛྷ Ensure literacy and numeracy is everyone’s
First – Primary Years Focus, and Literacy and
business – across all year levels and in all areas
Numeracy guidebooks).
of curriculum.
ཛྷཛྷ Use a variety of coaching and support models
ཛྷཛྷ Implement classroom practices that engage
and intellectually stretch Aboriginal learners.
including peer, leader, expert, mentor, and
professional buddy.
ཛྷཛྷ Provide ongoing, quality, instructional
leadership and professional learning, which
supports school priorities and targets
individual needs.
24
Aboriginal Learner Achievement | Leaders’ Resource | Quality school improvement planningIntended impact of assuring consistent, high quality
classroom practice
ཛྷཛྷ An improvement in the growth and achievement ཛྷཛྷ The speed of change towards improvement is
of Aboriginal learners is achieved. accelerated.
ཛྷཛྷ Relationships with families of Aboriginal students ཛྷཛྷ A collaborative culture of internal accountability,
are strengthened. collective expectations and improvement actions
is built.
ཛྷཛྷ Classroom practices continually improve
to support more meaningful learning for all ཛྷཛྷ A shared understanding of quality teaching is
Aboriginal students. developed.
ཛྷཛྷ Teacher motivation, and commitment to raise ཛྷཛྷ Leadership is shared and advocated at all levels.
achievement of Aboriginal learners, increases.
ཛྷཛྷ Engagement and attendance improve.
ཛྷཛྷ There is ‘buy-in’, and engagement of teachers
in their work to support growth of Aboriginal
learners is strengthened.
Other things to consider
ཛྷཛྷ Teaching Aboriginal students requires sensitivity
and knowledge about Aboriginal cultural
protocols and lifestyles.
ཛྷཛྷ Research indicates the importance of:
- understanding the ‘code-switching’ required of
Aboriginal students between home and school
- structured, culturally appropriate approaches
to learning literacy and numeracy, such as
‘scaffolding’
- culturally safe learning environments
- teacher understanding about their students’
in-school and out-of-school lives
- school as a place of belonging and relevance.
25
Aboriginal Learner Achievement | Leaders’ Resource | Quality school improvement planningKey element 4
Applying rigorous, evidence-based
learning interventions
This element refers to effective and targeted learner interventions
which support and/or extend Aboriginal learner achievement.
This means that principals and their staff establish Important terms
school systems to identify and provide appropriate
learning support and/or intervention programs The Aboriginal Learner Achievement Quality Matrix
early, to enable Aboriginal students to successfully for this element refers to a number of terms that are
enrich their literacy and numeracy skills. explained below.
Learner intervention means providing targeted,
additional literacy and numeracy support for
Aboriginal learners
Guiding Questions
Intervention programs are the evidence-based
approaches that draw on the recommended literacy
How does the school effectively and numeracy programs outlined in the Literacy and
provide literacy and numeracy Numeracy First document and Best Advice series.
intervention for identified Aboriginal
learners?
26
Aboriginal Learner Achievement | Leaders’ Resource | Quality school improvement planningStudents who are taught
by expert teachers exhibit an
understanding of the concepts
targeted in instruction that is more
integrated, more coherent, and at
a higher level of abstraction, than
the understanding achieved by
other students (Hattie 2003).
Why are rigorous, evidence-based, learning
interventions important?
Without early intervention, gaps in literacy and Support may be more effective during these years
numeracy knowledge become wider, resulting in of schooling, if provided in-class, with sufficient
learners not keeping up, losing interest and falling scaffolding to do the same high-level tasks as would
behind. It also has an impact on self-efficacy and be expected at this year level. This approach is
self-worth. based on Vygotsky’s theory of ‘Zone of Proximal
Development’, that learning occurs when a teacher
While not all children develop reading ‘skills’ at the supports or ‘scaffolds’ learners to do tasks that are
same rate, it is generally considered that children well beyond their independent abilities.
should learn to read by age 7. Intervention programs
are often implemented during year 1 at school.
'In the primary school, it is possible for teachers to
Children start school with a wide range of literacy manage students with weak literacy. It is not possible
experience and knowledge. Some children benefit for any student with weak Australian Standard
from additional support to enable them to thrive English literacy skills, to handle the secondary school
academically and socially. curriculum, unless it is modified to a low level. Early
intervention is paramount to raising achievement'
A high proportion of Aboriginal learners continue to (Rose 2015).
experience difficulties in the middle and upper years
of school despite early intervention, or for whom
early intervention was not received.
Key
Elements
27
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