01 - Department of Education and Communities - NSW Government

GETTING THE FOUNDATION RIGHTStudent LiteracyOutcomesThe Basic Skills Test for Years 3and 5 was an important part of theoverall Literacy Strategy as itprovided two snapshots of students’achievements in the primary yearsof schooling. The BST provideddetailed information aboutindividual student performance aswell as summary information abouthow the school performed inaspects of literacy. The results arereported in five skill bands for Year3 and six skill bands for Year 5.Skill Band 1 is the lowest level ofachievement.Students are tested in the areasof reading and language. Animportant feature of the literacytest is that, while it is largely basedon the English K-6 syllabus, itdraws upon the literacy skillsrequired in all KLAs of the primarycurriculum. This ensures that theprogram is a test of basic skillsrather than a set of tests in Englishand mathematics.An example of a literacy questionin the 1997 Basic Skills Test isshown in the box below.Analysis of 1995 and 1997 resultsshows that more than half of Year3 students who were placed in thelowest skill band in 1995 moved tohigher levels after being tested in1997. At Year 5 in 1997, ten percent of students needed additionalassistance in literacy compared to16 per cent requiring intensivesupport in Year 3 in 1995.Because the results from every yearof testing have been placed on thesame scale, it is possible and validto look at trends over time. For bothYears 3 and 5, the results can beseen to be fairly stable. The 1997scores are the highest in the fouryears since both Years 3 and 5 havebeen tested.Detailed results of the Basic SkillsTests can be found in the sectionMonitoring Student Progress laterin this volume.Examples of Student Performance inthe 1997 Literacy Basic Skills Tests• 96% of Year 3 students can locatespecific information in simple text• 92% of Year 3 students canrecognise that a full stop is thecorrect punctuation at the end ofa statement• 90% of Year 5 students can extractinformation from narrative text• 92% of Year 5 students canrecognise the need for a capitalletter to begin a sentenceExamples of Literacy QuestionsThese questions were included in both the Year 3 andYear 5 Aspects of Literacy tests.1. What is the softest part of the tooth?the rootthe pulpthe crownthe dentine2. Where is the dentine?Colour it in.Question 1 uses multiple choice format. Students wererequired to use a label to locate and compare specificinformation in a text which is organised undersubheadings.In Year 3, 66% of students answered correctly.In Year 5, 85% of students answered correctly.Question 2 required students to shade in part of thediagram to show their answer.Students were asked to use a label to identify a specificfeature on a diagram.In Year 3, 74% of students answered correctly.In Year 5, 85% of students answered correctly.DSE Annual Report 1997 21