What is the relationship between K-6 syllabus development and standards-referenced assessment?
Standards represent a country’s or a state’s articulation of what school students are expected to know and to be able to do as a result of effective teaching and learning. These are commonly described for particular points in time. In the Netherlands this means at the end of primary school, and again at the end of the compulsory high school years. It is also the case in some states in the USA, while, in some other states, the standards are defined grade by grade. In England these key points are at entry into school and at ages 7, ll, 14 and 16. A number of Australian states have standards frameworks that are based on stage/year relationships. In NSW, the end of the notional stages and the related years of schooling (Kindergarten, Year 2, Year 4, Year 6, Year 8, Year 10 and Year 12) are used as the key markers for the reporting of student achievement. Standards in NSW syllabuses are described: • through the aim/s: which broadly describes the overall intention of the syllabus, • through
