World-first Teaching Resource for Students With a Disability

A new teaching resource to better tailor literacy and numeracy lessons for students with disability and complex needs the Assessment for Complex Learners (AfCL) project, is a world-first set of integrated, online assessment tools that help teachers understand the skills of students with complex learning needs.

Improving foundational skills in literacy and numeracy is the key aim of the new tools and allows teachers to understand the full spectrum of a student’s learning, regardless of their disability.

The new resources enable teachers to plan an effective and targeted learning program for a student, while also measuring progress, and providing to parents and therapists with a clear picture of how that student is developing.

The project was co-designed and trialled by 387 public schools across NSW involving approximately 2900 students, with a focus on two assessment tools:
•    The Passport for Learning to provide holistic assessment for students with moderate to severe intellectual disability
•    The Literacy and Numeracy Precursors to describe the skills students may need to establish strong literacy and numeracy.

Teachers, school leaders and school support officers have praised the AfCL tool as genuinely useful and relevant for students with complex learning needs and disabilities, particularly in areas such as planning and reporting.

They said the assessments supported better understanding of a students’ abilities across a school and between schools. The Assessment for Complex Learners tools will be available to all NSW public schools in 2024.