About National Assessment
National Assessment in Civics and Citizenship was introduced in 2004 when the MCEETYA Civics and Citizenship Assessment Domain was released and the first sample survey testing of Years 6 and 10 students took place.
Background
Assessment of civics and citizenship is part of a national plan that is progressively being put in place to monitor and report on student achievement against the National Goals for Schooling in the Twenty-first Century. The national goals and the importance of monitoring student achievements in relation to the goals were agreed to by all State, Territory and federal education ministers in 1999.
One of the national goals specifies that students, when they leave school, should 'be active and informed citizens with an understanding and appreciation of Australia's system of government and civic life' (Goal 1.4). Moreover, students should ‘have the capacity to exercise judgement and responsibility in matters of morality, ethics and social justice, and the capacity to make sense of their world, to think about how things got the way they are, to make rational and informed decisions about their lives and to accept responsibility for their own actions’ (Goal 1.3).
(The full text of National Goals for Schooling in the Twenty-first Century is available at: http://www.mceetya.edu.au/mceetya/default.asp?id=11576)
The development of performance measures and the monitoring and reporting program related to CCE is being implemented by the Performance Measurement and Reporting Taskforce (PMRT), a nationally representative taskforce established by the nation’s education ministers.
CCE is the fourth area of national assessment (after literacy, numeracy and science). The first testing was held in 2004. Subsequent survey tests will be held at three-year intervals.
Further Information
Solving some civics and citizenship education conundrums by Suzanne Mellor.
MCEETYA National Assessment Program