Collection of information on student background characteristics
This manual provides information to assist schools and school systems to collect student background information from parents as agreed by Education Ministers. This is to enable nationally comparable reporting of students' outcomes against the National Goals for Schooling in the Twenty-First Century.
Information is to be collected via enrolment forms (or special data collection forms) on students':
sex;
Indigenous status;
socioeconomic background; and
language background.
Some of the data elements require the collection of information about the background of students' parents/guardians.
The manual describes what is involved and what it means in practical terms for schools, school systems and testing agents.
The 2007 edition of the manual replaces the Data Implementation Manual for Enrolments for the 2005 and 2006 School Years. It is to be used by schools and school systems when enrolling students for the first time in the 2007 school year or when collecting information, via special data collection forms, on those students who are involved in national testing in 2007. It may also be used by secondary schools which have not previously been involved in this process, but which will be required to have information on the background characteristics of Year 9 students in 2008, when full cohort common national tests in literacy and numeracy will be introduced for Year 3, Year 5, Year 7 and Year 9 students.
For existing users, the main change from the 2005-2006 edition is that the 2007 Manual contains an updated version of the language coding index at Attachment 6.
In brief, schools and school systems need to collect background information on relevant students using agreed questions. The resulting information is to be supplied to testing agents so that it can be linked with students' test forms. If the information has already been collected on individual students it does not need to be updated for the purposes of nationally comparable reporting, unless there is a requirement under privacy legislation that it be updated.
The manual is intended for people in schools and school systems who are involved in the:
design of enrolment forms and enrolment processes;
collection of information from parents;
design, maintenance or modification of student information storage and retrieval systems;
updating of student records; and
school-level management or coordination of literacy, numeracy and national sample testing.
The manual also provides information for testing agents (i.e. the organisations that conduct the assessments). In some cases, State education authorities are the testing agents.
Not all schools need to use this manual. In large systems, for example, implementation is a central responsibility.
The manual and its attachments can be downloaded as one complete document or, for convenience, in 3 separate documents:
Introduction Purpose of the manual How will the information be used? Who should use the manual? How is implementation managed in your sector? Updates of the manual Privacy requirements Help for schools
Actions required Key steps for existing users Key steps for new users
Technical specifications How information is collected, stored and reported for each of the background characteristics
Curriculum Corporation as the legal entity for the Ministerial Council on Education, Employment, Training and Youth Affairs (MCEETYA) owns the copyright in this publication. This publication or any part of it may be used freely only for non-profit education purposes.
Address enquiries regarding copyright to:
MCEETYA Secretariat, PO Box 202 Carlton South, VIC 3053, Australia.
