Assessment in mathematics and numeracy is more than forming judgements about a learner's ability. It monitors the learner's understanding of the mathematical language, concepts and skills and what they need to do to succeed.
This requires:
- an understanding of how learning develops
- what skills and knowledge learners need to progress
- the common misunderstandings that can delay learning.
Scaffolding student learning in mathematics is the primary task of teachers.
Teachers need accurate information about what each student already knows and with support, what might be within the student's grasp.
Numeracy learning progressions
The Victorian Numeracy Learning Progressions outline a sequence of observable indicators of increasingly sophisticated understanding and skills in 15 key numeracy concepts.
The progressions:
- give teachers a clear view of numeracy learning
- help facilitate professional learning in numeracy development in schools.
The numeracy learning progressions are not a curriculum. Refer to the Victorian Curriculum: Mathematics for content descriptions and achievement standards.
Each learning progression has a series of developmental steps provided in a span. Each step illustrates an observable progression of learning. For example, quantifying numbers has 12 steps in a span from Foundation to Level 6, while operating with decimals has four steps in a span from Level 4 to Level 7.
To support teachers to understand and use the numeracy learning progressions, each progression has been mapped to the Victorian Curriculum F – 10: Mathematics Continuum. Each row shows the number of steps in the learning progression and how they relate to each level. For numeracy, the subheading of each step has also been included to support teacher use.
Resources
Insight assessment platform
The Insight Assessment Platform is aimed at helping teacher assess the progress of all learners and support more targeted teaching practices. This online platform can be accessed by teachers in government schools.
Resources, supports and tools, on the platform support high quality assessment practices and provide teachers with information they can use to target the learning needs of students as they progress along the learning continuum.
Digital assessment library
The Digital Assessment Library (DAL) provides a range of online classroom assessment tools for mathematics. These assessments are designed to provide meaningful and timely information about student skills, knowledge and understanding across the three strands of mathematics.
Scaffolding numeracy in the middle years
The Scaffolding Numeracy in the Middle Years (SNMY) resource allows practitioners to access assessment materials, the Learning and Assessment Framework for Multiplicative Thinking (LAF), learning plans, authentic tasks and research findings from the project that investigated a new assessment-guided approach to improving student numeracy outcomes in Years 4 to 8.
Learning and assessment framework for multiplicative thinking
The Learning and Assessment Framework for Multiplicative Thinking (LAF) was developed on the basis of research conducted through the SNMY project. The LAF helps bring together all of the key ideas, strategies and representations of multiplication and division needed to work confidently with whole numbers, fractions, decimals and percent across a wide range of contexts. It's linked to the rich assessment tasks used to evaluate multiplicative thinking and contains explicit advice on teaching implications.
Assessment for common misunderstandings
The Assessment for Common Misunderstandings (ACM) tools are based on series of research-based Probe Tasks which were developed for teaching purposes to identify learning needs in Number. The Probe Task Manual includes a number of tasks and resources which are organised to address common misunderstandings.
Additional resources
For information on NAPLAN Data Service, NAPLAN online, test timetable, sample test materials, publications, forms and general information for schools and parents, see: About NAPLAN.