Melton Secondary College has introduced a developmental approach to learning for the first time in the school’s history.
The new rubric has been taken from the Victorian Curriculum and aims to track a student’s progress up until VCE.
Student progress was previously monitored by an old-school test resulting in a single letter grade, making it hard for students to know what they did well in an assessment.
By introducing this new grading system, student progress can be tracked from year seven right through to year 10.
“A lot of work has happened in the education space focusing on a developmental approach to assessment,” Kriss Payne, Assistant Principal and Director of Student Services and Operations said.
“What we know, and what the Victorian Government has also really prioritised, is that the most impactful form of assessment and feedback to students happens during a unit of learning.”
There are levels which Melton Secondary College expect students to meet, and Ms Payne reiterated that it’s about making sure they’re able to go as far as they can along a continuum.
“I think it’s a very powerful shift”
Ms Payne used the example of a year seven student completing a history unit with skills that exceed an expected year seven level.
“They might be able to show skills that actually demonstrate a year eight or nine level, so that’s given us much more scope not only to support our students working below level and who need support, but also to extend the students who want to push themselves.”
“It’s been incredible seeing so many of our staff putting descriptive feedback on Compass for the first time, too,” she continued.
“We’ve got parents being able to look at really clear, granular pieces of feedback for their students that they probably would have never seen before.”
“And I think a big piece of the puzzle is trying to bridge the gap between what is happening at school in terms of student learning, and what parents and families are taking away from that,” she said.
“The more we can make it accessible and the more we can create a shared language with families about where their kids are and where they’re going, I think it’s a very powerful shift.”
Change is at the centre of growth
Head of English, Breannen Bingham, said that the rubric was three-years in the making.
“Every time a student did a task in English we could track what they did in that task, but not what they did overtime,” she said.
“If you think about the transition from year seven to 12, we couldn’t actually track their progress from task to task, year to year, or even term to term.”
“We wanted to create a continuum that the student could take with them throughout their school journey,” she said.
This led to the introduction of the developmental rubric.
“When we’re teaching in classrooms, everything links back to the student.”
“We are seeing [student] growth and we can pinpoint where that growth is, and as teachers we can focus on the skills that the students have and what skills they need,” she said.
Where to now?
Change doesn’t happen overnight, and Ms Payne believes this is something that the school will benefit from in years to come.
“Having a really clear link to the Victorian curriculum and external standards will give parents and families a real sense that assessment and the information that they’re getting about their student is accurate and aligned to something that is comparable.”
“That’s really important in terms of equity,” she said. “Kids know when they want to improve, but if you don’t give them a clear pathway it can be really frustrating.”
“We know that you have to show what success looks like, in any space,” Ms Payne said. “The more you can give students in terms of what we’re working towards, the more it makes sense to them.”