How one year's HSC results can help a whole school

Every year, maths teachers at Concord High School pore over HSC results to find the areas in which students struggled, and use the insights to ensure pupils in younger grades don't face the same problems.

A few years ago they identified issues with probability and "significant figures". So they changed their curriculum to ensure those concepts were first addressed as early as year 7, then kept reinforcing them as students progressed.

"They provide opportunities at every step of the way ... for students to be able to practise and consolidate those skills," principal Victor Newby said. "[Analysing the HSC results is] a way of looking at what could be done better the following year."

Smart use of data has been singled out by the NSW Department of Education's Centre for Education Statistics and Evaluation (CESE) as one of the most effective tools schools can use in their teaching.

But the report, which looks at some of the most effective classroom practices, also shows that it is the area in which schools feel least confident, and in which they could make the biggest improvement.

An international study from 2018 found 41 per cent of Australian teachers felt analysis and use of student assessment is an area in which they would like further training.

A leading expert in educational measurement, Professor Jim Tognolini from the University of Sydney, said the use of data in education was widely misunderstood, and many schools were still not harnessing it as effectively as Concord High.

Professor Tognolini said data was more than numbers and results: it could range from HSC performance to a teacher's observation that a child who had previously handed in homework had stopped doing it, or a call from a parent about a problem.

All information gathered by teachers – from assessment results to observations – could be pieced together to create evidence, which in turn supported confidence in a judgment or strategy.

"I think what's happening is that when people hear the word data they immediately jump to the HSC scores and NAPLAN scores," Professor Tognolini said. "Some schools just get numbers and scores and don't use it effectively.

"People have to interact with data, and feed it into evidence; here's some data, here is what we already know, how does this fit with what should be happening? From the evidence, we are either more confident, or less confident.

"Principals used to say to me, ‘we've got our NAPLAN results back, and they don't tell us anything new'. I'd say to them, ‘that's fantastic, because there's another bit of data that gives you more confidence in what you're already doing'. It's how schools use data in context that's important."

The CESE What Works report also found high expectations, explaining to students why they are learning something, constructive feedback, assessment and a focus on wellbeing – including coping strategies and resilience – are key to effective teaching.