Essential Secondary Science Assessment (ESSA)

SMART is the DET’s School Measurement, Assessment and Reporting Toolkit.

ESSA on SMART is used to report assessment data to schools so that teachers can analyse the information about individual students and groups. This valuable information from SMART helps teachers to design and refine programs to target identified needs, including those of the gifted and talented, to improve learning outcomes for all students in the area of science.

SMART software is cutting edge technology for schools. Nowhere else nationally and internationally do schools have access to such a sophisticated analysis package that enables the manipulation and investigation of student performance data.

Schools that participate in ESSA can access all their past and current data from the SMART data portal. New ESSA data is available near the end of Term 1 of the year following the test  for participating schools. (The school’s web password is required for authorised schools to obtain access.)

SMART provides a wealth of ways that the school can access data about the performance of its students on ESSA. Following are but three examples.

The teacher can study an individual student’s responses, identifying strengths and weaknesses in different areas of science, analysing individual items and referring to ‘Curriculum Links’, an online teaching and learning resource for items.   

The teacher can view and print a range of reports about the achievement of individual students and of groups within the school.

Download a sample of a student report for parents (2544 kb pdf)

The teacher can compare performance by any group of the school’s students with state averages for various areas of science and levels of achievement. This helps the teacher to pinpoint areas of success in school programs and areas for improvement.