Fifty Years of Research and Service: the ACER at Work
W. F. Connell
For the past 50 years the ACER has carefully preserved the records of all its transactions. The result is one of the richest archival collections on educa- tional matters in Australia. It contains volumes of widespread interstate and in- ternational correspondence, and substan- tial records of major researches and of many of the important events in the last half-century of Australia's educational history. Details can be found there of matters such as the 1937 New Education Fellowship Conference, the reform of the public library system in the 1930s and 1940s, the inception of the Australian Science Education Project, the develop- ment of the Commonwealth Secondary Scholarship Examination, and the estab- lishment of the Australian Association for Research in Education. Above all, of course, the archives contain the basic material for a history of the ACER itself.
Such a history was published in October 1980 with the title The Australian Council for Educational Research, 1930-80.
The ACER is primarily a research organization. Its history is therefore primarily concerned with its contribution to educational research. When it was established there was much talk of the practical usefulness of the research that it would undertake and encourage. In consequence, it has constantly been con- cerned with applied research. The fun- damental research that has been done has been very good but there has not been much of it. In this the ACER has been in step with most of the educational research done in Australia.
Although from time to time educational administrators have complained that the ACER's work had no bearing on the educational problems in their particular State, they have, with few exceptions, strongly supported the ACER's work. It has been clear that there has always been a close connection between the ACER and the research branches in the state
departments. In its early years most of the work at the ACER was done by teachers seconded from the departments, and, in more recent times, many of its special projects have depended on simi- lar secondments from state research branches and classrooms. One of the im- portant services that the ACER has rendered Australian education has been to provide training and practical research experience for the research staff of the state departments. The training has never been systematic but the experience has always been regarded as valuable by those selected for it. Undoubtedly, most of the principal officers in state research branches and a reasonable number of leading academic researchers would have worked for the ACER at some time in their career. To demonstrate his objec- tivity, the author of the history of the ACER has to confess that he was never one of its employees. He was, however, taught educational statistics by correspondence through the University of Melbourne by the ACER's first director. The cor- respondence is even preserved in the ACER's archives! Dr Cunningham, though very patient, was not uniformly successful with all his students.
Great care has been taken by suc- cessive councils and directors to promote
Presentation of the history by the author to the President of the ACER (left)
the ACER as an all-Australian institution.
Because it has always been situated in Victoria and has frequently used local schools and problems for its research, rumblings about its parochialness have occasionally surfaced. It is clear from its history, however, that until very recent times it has been almost the only body that genuinely looked at educational prob- lems on an Australia-wide basis, and, through its widespread council member- ship, state institutes, and peripatetic directors, had a mechanism for ap- preciating and dealing with Australian as distinct from local state issues.
Overseas interests
One of the interesting strands of the ACER's history is the still wider connec- tion that it has had with overseas educators and organizations. It owed its initial establishment to the interest of a'l overseas body, the Carnegie Corporation of New York.
From 1930 to 1942 the ACER was fund- ed almost entirely by the Carnegie Cor- poration. From then on, the common- wealth and state governments, sales of materials, and money from various con- tracts for special projects have provided the income.
The ACER from its beginning was in- terested in education and research overseas. It sponsored the international NEF conference in 1937, published work on education in the USA and UK, entered into correspondence with the Scottish Council for Research in Education and subsequently the National Foundation for Educational Research in England. Its most extensive international commitment started in 1963 and has continued to the present time through its involvement in the cross-national studies of the Interna- tional Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA).
Types of service
Throughout its history the ACER has pro- vided services mainly of five kinds.
Applied research
First, in research, its emphasis on applied
work has meant that it has moved its in- terests from time to time to cater for what it has perceived to be the current needs and interests of Australian primary and secondary schools. Perhaps the best ex- ample of this was the long debate on the ACER's research activities initiated by the second director, Dr W. C. Radford, when he took office in 1955, and culminating in the publication of his monograph fn 1964, A Field for Many Tillings. The details of the continuing analysis of the ACER's research role throughout the director- ships of both W. C. Radford and J. P.
Keeves are given in chapter 7 of the history. Here the point to be made is that it was mainly an effort to seek for lines of research that could be seen to be of prac- tical service to Australian schools. Some of it has not changed much over the years, except in the sophistication of its methods. On the other hand, there has been an effort to keep abreast of contem- porary educational thinking, and to develop the kind of research that not merely serves existing needs but also looks forward to the demands of the not too distant future.
Tests
The second major kind of educational ser- vice undertaken by the ACER has been the provision of tests of a considerable variety of types to school systems, in- dividual schools and teachers, teacher education bodies, university departments, and psychologists. Along with the tests the ACER's psychological and educa- tional service has provided appropriate information and advice.
The first substantial sale of tests was in 1938 when the preparation of intelligence tests for Year 6 pupils in NSW schools began; the program continued until 1948, and was augmented in 1940 by a program of constructing high-level intelligence tests for the NSW Public Service Board, a task which continued until 1966. During the Second World War the ACER expand- ed its test construction activities con- siderably. To its existing interest in achievement and general ability tests, it developed an added expertise in aptitude and diagnostic testing. Immediately after the war an energetic test division was established under the direction of S. S.
Dunn. In consequence, the ACER became more substantially committed to test sales and test development and was generally seen by educators to be principally in- terested in that field. In 1960 the ACER began to develop packages of tests for clients. The NSW Basic Skills Testing Pro- gram was the first, followed by programs for other States, and subsequently in the 1960s and 1970s by the Commonwealth Secondary Scholarship Examination (CSSE), the Tertiary Education Entrance Project (TEEP) and the Australian Scholastic Aptitude Test (ASAT).
The ACER's catalogue of imported and locally constructed tests has grown over the years to substantial proportions.
Clients' preferences, too, have changed;
the Otis intelligence tests, among the best-sellers in the 1930s and 1940s, have
yielded pride of place to various Wechsler
Intelligence Scales and to Raven's Stan- dard Progressive Matrices. Income from the sale of tests has outstripped that from 2
any other source. In 1980, 75 per cent of income from sales came from the sale of tests. It was equally divided between psychological and educational tests, and yielded a substantial gross income.
Educational materials
The production and sale of educational materials is the third kind of service that the ACER has rendered to Australian schools. The first major venture was the marketing of Science Research Associ- ates (SRA) reading laboratories in 1961.
They were an immediate success. Dunn, through whose efforts the kits were in- troduced, capitalized on a revival of in- terest in individualizing education that the ACER was currently encouraging.
This was the beginning of a substantial interest in the development of curriculum materials. The Western Australian Reading Development Scheme (WARDS) and a number of products from the American Guidance Service Inc. (AGS) followed, and proved to be popular and lucrative.
The ACER's first entry into the actual production of curriculum materials was in 1964 when it began the Individual Mathe- matics Programme (IMP) for primary school children. Shortly afterwards a Junior Secondary Science Project (JSSP) was started and subsequently the ACER became involved in the Australian Science Education Project (ASEP). Social science and English were other major areas of involvement.
Pub I ications
Publication of research and educational discussion has been a further avenue of service to the educational community. In the first three years of its existence the ACER published 17 volumes in its Educa- tional Research Series which it has kept alive to the present time. To this series have been added several other special- ized series and journals, and a number of independent books. Most of the books and monographs have had a very small circu- lation amounting to no more than a few hundred copies, but some have had a wide distribution and lasting popularity. A teachers guide, J. A. Richardson et al., Books for the Retarded Reader, and a very readable and incisive analysis of Australian education by an American visitor, R. F. Butts, Assumptions Underly- ing Australian Education, were the two with the largest sales.
Evaluation studies
Finally, during the past 10 years there has been a growing emphasis on evaluation studies. The ACER was described in 1973 as 'really a big evaluation factory'.
The International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) and Australian Studies in School Per- formance (ASSP) projects were the largest of the evaluation studies, but there have been many more. The ACER's eval- uation services touch the whole range of educational activities from teacher education to education for unemployed youth, adult migrant education, state school staffing and resources, and aspects of pre-sc~ool education. Through evaluation and its near relative, survey
research, a firm link was established between service and research. Evaluation is an obvious and much sought after ser- vice for schools and education depart- ments. By revealing needs and deficien- cies, it becomes a springboard for further intensive research and development.
Contribution of the ACER
What has been the significance of the 50 years of research and service under- taken by the ACER? Has it helped to keep Australian education 'alive and alert' as its founders intended?
Undoubtedly the ACER has been a stimulus both to educational research and to the general field of education in Australia. On some occasions, for exam- ple through its involvement in the 1937 NEF Conference, R. F. Butts' report in 1955, the CSSE program of the 1960s, and the literacy and numeracy reports of the mid-1970s, it has provided a sharp and fundamental stimulus. Throughout its 50 years it has occupied an important place in Australian education, monitoring and promoting research throughout Australia, developing into the major centre of supply and expertise in educational and psycho- logical testing, distributing up-to-date materials, and disseminating significant views and useful research on education. It has been regarded as a source of sens- ible educational advice by governments, education departments, and schools who have used its staff in consultations and on committees of inquiry and evaluation.
For the most part it has been an uncon- troversial institution. Its views and activities have seldom provoked strong reactions. Its strongest line has been to foster the importance of measurement and testing in schools. The tests have been very valuable educational tools, but, with few exceptions, have not been designed to encourage innovation in education. The principal characteristic of the ACER's activities has been what might be called an enlightened responsiveness.
It has not developed a consistent philosophy of education which it has maintained for any length of time and pur- sued throughout its research test pro- gram, materials development, and educa- tional advice. It has chosen, instead, to follow an ad hoe program of activities that would respond to the needs of schools as they could. be seen from time to time. In pursuing such a policy the ACER has shown itself reasonably sensitive to both expressed and potential needs. Its work has a history of usefulness in meeting the demands of current management and in helping schools to move a little ahead of their present perspectives. D
1981 Educational Catalogue
At the end of January each year ACER mails one copy of the ACER Educational Catalogue to every educational institution in Australia and some other organizations.
Readers are invited to ask for a copy or additional copies of the Educational Catalogue which is free on request.
ACER Newsletter No. 41 April 1981
This book is the second in a series of reports to come from ACER's research program on youth in transition. It reports the results of the first phase of a survey of almost a thousand 14-year-olds in schools across Australia. These results are used to describe the influences that govern achievement in primary school, the transi- tion from primary to secondary school, and the ways in which 14-year-olds see their educational and occupational futures.
In doing this, the study asks the follow- ing kinds of questions:
What influences the learning of basic skills in the primary school, and by how much: does it matter where you live;
does it matter what school you go to;
how important is it to be born into the 'right' family; do the children of migrant families start off on an equal footing; are country children better or worse off; does it make a difference whether you are male or female?
2 Do the successes and failures of primary school - the learning and the failure to learn fundamental skills at this time - carry through to high school: do students with learning dif- ficulties in primary school have prob- lems learning the three Rs in high school; who gets help with their learn- ing difficulties; how do these problems, or the lack of them, affect what students think of themselves; achieve- ment aside, does it still matter where you live, what school you go to, what family you come from, and whether you are male or female?
3 How are students' educational and oc- cupational preferences formed: who leaves school as soon as they can, and why; who stays on to finish Year 12;
who will look for more education after high school; who will go to a university or college of advanced education;
what kind of jobs do these 14-year-olds aspire to; how does success and failure in learning the three Rs in primary and/or high school bear on these decisions?
ACER Newsletter No. 41 April 1981
These questions are asked within the context of the model presented below, a model which argues for the following patterns of effects:
the effects of State, school, family, and sex (groups 1 to 4) on achievement in basic skills in primary school;
2 the effects of all these factors, in- cluding achievement in basic skills (groups 1 to 5), on learning difficulties encountered in the early years of high school in the areas of reading, mathematics and writing (group 6);
1. State 1 - - - -
2. School
• System
• Rurality
• Year
• Grade
5. Achievement 1975
• Word knowledge
• Literacy
• Numeracy
3. Family
• Socioeconomic status
• Size
• Rurality
• Ethnicity
3 the effects of all of these factors (groups 1 to 6) on self-concept of ability and the support provided by significant others (groups 7 and 8);
4 the effects of all of these factors (groups 1 to 8) on the educational and occupational plans (group 9) of the students in our sample.
7. Self Concept of Ability
6. Learning Difficulties
• Reading
• Mathematics
• Writing
9. Educational anr:J Occupational Plans
• Leave school at minimum age
• Complete Year 12
• Further education
• Tertiary study
• Occupational preferences
8. Significant Others Support
• Parents
• Teachers
• Peers
... I<=---
Primary School (1975) - - - - E a r l y Secondary School (1979)~Model of Patterns of Influence
Some illustrative findings
Some of the findings are presented below in the form of extracts from Chapter 7 under the headings of 'learning in primary school', 'learning in high school', 'educa- tional plans', and 'occupational plans'.
Learning in primary school
Where the mastery of basic Literacy skills is concerned the relative influence of family and school is of much the same order of magnitude, showing the disadvantages of a rural education, the advantages of having had a chance to learn the material being tested, the intangible advantages of having the right parents, and the disadvantages of too many siblings.
Girls demonstrate their traditional mastery of words in that 13 per cent more achieve mastery of Literacy, an advantage that reduces to 3 per cent for Numeracy.
Contrary to our earlier analyses which ex- amined achievement in high school at age 14, we find that, other things equal, it matters little for basic skill learning whether one attends a Government, Catholic or Independent primary school.
Learning in high school
Other things equal, of those who achieved mastery on the Numeracy test 21 per cent fewer report problems with mathematics relative to non-masters ... 19 per cent fewer of those mastering Literacy in primary school report reading problems.
We find that students who are the youngest in their class as a result of the regulations that govern age at starting school, experience more difficulties in learning relative to others of a similar age and similar in the other respects we have measured, but one grade behind in school.
The most important cause of getting remedial help was needing it. However those in need had only a 50:50 chance of get- ting help.
It is those who learned the basic skills taught in primary school, and those with the least learning difficulties in high school, that see themselves above average in their ability to handle the learning demands that high schools make on their students.
Educational plans
Those likely to leave school at the earliest op- portunity are, other things equal, those whose achievement in primary school was poor, who are experiencing learning difficulties in high school, and those who see their own academic capabilities as only average or worse.
Relative to Australian-barns like them in other respects, some 16 per cent more non- English-born students plan to complete high school. 12 per cent more girls than boys plan to stay on to Year 12. Similar patterns are seen for the students' reports of their plans for fur- ther study.
Occupational plans
If we discount the effect of sex as a function of the labour market rather than the processes of ascription and achievement that identify each student in high school, then the two largest ef- fects on occupational aspirations are those from family SES and self-concept of ability.
Those students we have called grade- advanced appear to have lower aspirations simply as a function of being grade-advanced.
If you don't do well in primary school the chances are increased that, other things equal, you won't do well in high school, that you'll plan to leave before Year 12, that you won't plan to undertake more education and that you expect to end up in a blue-collar occupation. We sug- gest that this pattern of effects pictures for some a gradual cumulation of incapabilities beginning in the primary school, incapabilities that are realized and accepted as part of the student's self-image ... a phenomenon which we have called 'the cumulation of educational deficit'. □
3
AUSTRALIAN JOURNAL OF EDUCATION
An open letter from the editor.
The AJE is published and distributed by ACER. To subscribe, please complete and return the form printed below.
SUBSCRIPTION FORM - AJE 1981
To: Distribution Services Division ACER
P.O. Box 210
Hawthorn, Vic. 3122, Australia
Please record my subscription for the Australian Journal of Education 1981 @ $15.00 per subscription.*
We enclose a cheque for $ ... ..
Name ... . Address
Postcode ... .
* The subscription covers three issues in 1981.
SUBSCRIPTION FORM -set1981
To: Distribution Services Division ACER
P.O. Box 210
Hawthorn, Vic. 3122, Australia
Please record my subscription for
set1981 @$12.50 per subscription We enclose a cheque for
$ ...••....for D subscriptions
Name ... . Address ...
, .... ... Postcode ... . NB. The subscription rate covers the supply of the two packages of set for 1981
. Packaged Professional Reading
set is a package of approx. 15 pamphlets or booklets of research information and news prepared for teachers.
* AUTHORITATIVE BUT JARGON-FREE
* SUCCINCTLY WRITTEN; ILLUSTRATED
* PRACTICAL OUTCOMES EMPHASISED
* TWO PACKAGES EACH YEAR (30 'SPOT-ON' ITEMS)
* FLEXIBLE FORMAT FOR ACTIVE USE
* CHEAP, BUT DEFINITELY NOT NASTY!
set content:
is balanced across levels of education from pre-school to tertiary and also covers a variety of research reports, materials for general professional development, new aids and methods for teaching, reviews of research or of notable documents, and items to keep readers up-to-date with contemporary trends in education.
coming in set : •
• How classroom design effects teaching - what teachers can do.
• Continuous enrolment at age 5.
• Classroom Environment
• Community expectations of Numeracy.
• Does intelligence equal learning ability?
• Research on Teaching Practices.
• Contents forecast are subject to change at the editor's discretion but are accurate expectations at the time of printing this notice.
t
Approximate number of subscribers in Australia, November 1980.f lfchanges in Secondary School Mathematics in Australia 1964-78
Malcolm Rosier
There have been many recent claims that the achievement in basic skills of the cur- rent generation of school children is lower than that of earlier generations. The public debate around these claims has often been heated, although the par- ticipants have had little empirical evidence on which to base their dis- cussions.
The new ACER book, Changes in Secondary School Mathematics in Aust- ralia 1964-1978, has been written to illuminate the debate, not only by pro- viding evidence about changes in mathematics achievement over a 14-year period, but also to set these changes in the context of other relevant factors. The results presented in the book have been based on two large Australia-wide surveys of mathematics achievement conducted by the ACER. Students at two levels of the secondary school answered specially designed mathematics tests in 1964 and in 1978. The first level was defined to in- clude students of 13 years, an age at which virtually all persons in Australia were still at school. The second level was defined to include mathematics students in the final year of the secondary school, now termed Year 12 in all States.
The samples for the 1964 study in- cluded only students from government schools in five States. The 1978 study included students from both government and non-government schools in all States and the ACT.
Curriculum and tests
The tests were originally developed as part of an international study of mathematics achievement organized by the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA). Prior to the construction of the 1964 tests, a thorough analysis was made of the mathematics curriculum at the two defined levels in the countries par- ticipating in the study. From this analysis emerged a consensus about the content of the mathematics curriculum, and the I EA tests were constructed to reflect this consensus.
The same tests were used in 1978. An analysis of the mathematics curriculum in Australia in 1978 showed that the tests were probably more closely linked to the curriculum content than in 1964. Indeed, the mathematics curriculum covered a wider range of content areas i17 1978 than in 1964 at both of the levels examined in the study. Details of the scores of students on the mathematics tests and associated attitude scales have been in- cluded in the book; only a few of the general findings have been presented in this summary article.
Results for 13-year-old students At the 13-year-old level, there was a slight overall decline across Australia in mathematics achievement, although the test results provide no support for the view that there has been a serious or widespread decline.
6
Table 1 shows the State mean scores on the 65-item Mathematics Test, which had a mean standard deviation of 11 .1.
Victoria was the only State where the decline in mean scores from 1964 to 1978 was statistically significant at the 95 per cent probability level.
Results for the sub-tests show that there was a lower level of achievement in geometry in 1978, but this was probably because of the corresponding decline in the emphasis on formal geometry in the mathematics curriculum. The same type of matching between curriculum and achievement was noted for items con- cerned with 'new' mathematics. Perfor- mance in this area increased, associated with a greater emphasis on new mathematics in the 1978 curriculum. The 13-year-old students in the sample were taken from three year levels: Years 7 to 9.
Further analyses showed that, as ex- pected, mathematics achievement was positively correlated with year level.
Results for Year 12 students
From 1964 to 1978 there was an increase of about 60 per cent in the proportion of students remaining at school until Year 12, and in the proportion studying mathematics at this level.
Table 1 shows the State mean scores on the 69-item Mathematics Test for this level; the mean standard deviation was 9.1. For each of the five States with com- parable data (for government schools) the mean score was higher in 1978 than in 1964, although the difference was statistically significant only in Western Australia. This improvement in perfor- mance has occurred in spite of the large increase in enrolments.
The results at the Year 12 level also demonstrate the strong agreement be- tween the three stages in the curriculum sequence:
the intended curriculum, as defined by educational authorities;
2 the translated curriculum, represent- ing the teachers' interpretation of the intended curriculum;
3 the achieved curriculum, as measured by student performance on the mathe- matics tests.
Attitudes
The study revealed a deterioration in the attitudes of the 13-year-old and Year 12 students from 1964 to 1978. Students in 1978 considered that the study of mathematics was of lower importance for future employment or their understanding of the environment, that people had less ability to control their physical and social environment, and that schools and school work were less enjoyable.
Conclusion
The results of this study show the impor- tance of relating changes in achievement to changes in other relevant factors, and attitudes, notably the curriculum. No com- parisons of achievement across time or across different States should be made unless the context in which the teaching has taken place is also considered.
Changes in Secondary School Mathe- matics in Australia 1964-1978 documents both the context and achievement as a contribution to debate on the place of mathematics in Australian secondary schools over the coming decade. □
Table 1 Mathematics Test Scores
13-year-old students 19643 19783 1978b
Year12
· students 19643 19783 1978b
ACT
29.6
23.8
NSW
27.4 25.1 25.9
27.2 27.3 26.8 a Students in government schools only.
Vic.
27.9 23.1 24.6
30.7 31.8 30.9
Old
30.7 29.0 29.9
26.7 28.7 28.9
b Students in both government and non-government schools.
New from ACER
Books
SA
26.7
28.5
WA
25.7 26.2 26.9
20.7 23.3 22.6
Tas.
23.7 23.4 24.2
31.4 33.1 33.6
Oracy in Australian Schools by S. F. Bourke, M. L. Clark, D. F. Davis and F. Holzer (ACER Research Monograph No. 9) including Appendixes
on microfiche. . .. $11.00
School and Work in Prospect: 14-year-olds in Australia by Trevor Williams, Margaret Batten, Sue Girling-Butcher and Jeff Clancy (ACER Research
Monograph No. 10). . . $10.00
Evaluation of Staff Development in TAFE: A Summary of the Reports by Adrian Fordham
and John Ainley. . . .. $2.00
Advisory publications
Bulletin for Psychologists No. 29, February 1981, compiled by Diana Bradshaw ACER Educational Catalogue 1981
ACER Newsletter No. 41 April 1981
