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Week 21: Alternative pathways
ACER’s university admissions tests help provide learners with opportunities appropriate to their readiness and needs.
Policies to boost participation in higher education have prompted universities to create alternative entry pathways for thousands of students, and ACER is ensuring the reliability of those pathways through the provision of tests like the Special Tertiary Admissions Test (STAT) and uniTEST, which assist tertiary admissions centres in Australia by providing objective and comparable information about candidates. uniTEST also assists universities in Denmark. A third test – the Mature Students Admissions Pathway (MSAP) – assists universities in Ireland in the same way.
‘Tests like STAT and MSAP provide prospective students who are not recent school leavers, and who now have a very different current capability, with an opportunity to gain entry to university,’ explains Susan Nankervis, Senior Project Director in Assessment Services at ACER.
‘uniTEST works likewise,’ adds Joyce Hong, uniTEST Project Director in Assessment Services at ACER. ‘It provides an assessment of the generic reasoning and thinking skills of current senior school students, as a complement to their senior school results.’
Developing such tests is a team effort, Susan explains. ‘ACER’s Assessment and Reporting test development teams panel and trial newly developed test items. Colleagues in the Psychometrics and Methodology research program then analyse the items’ performance data to ensure future test instruments incorporating the items are valid and reliable.’
Because uniTEST is used in Australia and Denmark, Joyce points out, that team effort in test development also involves paneling and trialing test items for possible cultural or gender bias.
The aim of STAT, MSAP and uniTEST, says Susan, is to assess whether students have the skills required to be successful at university. ‘The focus of government policy,’ she points out, ‘is not simply on enrolment, but graduation.’ High-quality tests like STAT, uniTEST and MSAP are supporting learners and universities by making sure there’s a good fit between the two.
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Week 52: State of the art psychometric and statistical analysis
Week 51: Assessing civics and citizenship
Week 50: International research into teaching and learning
GOAL 1
Learners and their needs
every learner engaged in challenging learning opportunities appropriate to their readiness and needs
GOAL 2
The Learning Profession
every learning professional highly skilled, knowledgeable and engaged in excellent practice
GOAL 3
Places of learning
every learning community well resourced and passionately committed to improving outcomes for all learners
GOAL 4
A Learning Society
a society in which every learner experiences success and has an opportunity to achieve their potential
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