Assessing, Recording and Reporting Students’ Educational Progress: the case for ‘subject profiles’

In response to persistent concerns about limitations endemic to the exclusive use of standardised tests and examinations for student assessment and standards monitoring, one approach to addressing these concerns in Victoria (Australia) since 1986 has been the development and use of 'subject profiles' as frameworks' for assessing, recording and reporting students' educational progress. Following a brief context review and account of their origins, this paper defines what is meant by subject profiles and indicates why and how they have been developed and used. In arguing the case for the use of subject profiles in both monitoring and explanatory research, attention is given to both their utility and limitations. For illustrative purposes, descriptive data are presented from recent studies involving 34 000 students in Reception to Year 11, drawn from 650 government, Catholic, independent primary and secondary schools, using the 'reading' strand from the Victorian English Profiles and the 'number' strand from the Mathematics Profiles.