VELS Level 3 – 6 Developmental Assessment Resource for Teachers (DART) English
Levels 3 and 4 of the Victorian Essential Learning Standards (VELS)
This section presents an overview of the Developmental Assessment Resource for Teachers (DART) English, the tasks administered, the purpose, advantages and disadvantages, and costs.
Purpose
This diagnostic assessment tool is an integrated package that in its entirety assesses viewing, reading, listening, speaking and writing, with supplementary assessment tasks to assess students’ small group discussion skills and ability to write procedural texts.
Who should participate?
Two kits are available that focus on:
- Level 3 VELS Myths and Legends A and B
- Level 4 VELS Danny’s Egg A and B
Note: in the reading component the questions presented are indicative of Levels 1–5 VELS.
This assessment task can be administered to a whole class.
Time required
To assess students using all components of DART (reading, writing, speaking, listening and viewing) would require five one-hour sessions over a period of one or two weeks.
For example: one hour plus an additional 15 minutes for Reading Form A – Prediction activity.
It takes approximately 10 minutes to mark each task as well as additional time for analysis of results.
Strengths
The reading component of DART assesses students’ ability to make meaning from a variety of written text types. There are two tests (Reading Form A and B) which can be used at the beginning and end of a year to measure progression in reading achievement.
Students are provided with a full colour set of stimulus material in magazine form, and an accompanying question and answer booklet. Teachers mark students’ written responses for meaning using the marking guide provided.
This enables teachers to determine students’ levels of competence in relation to descriptions of skills that a student at a given level of achievement can be expected to demonstrate.
The design of DART means it is possible to assess a range of achievement levels with the one test.
Used in its entirety, the DART package provides thematically integrated assessment activities which link good teaching practice with comprehensive assessment practices. All tasks are linked onto a common scale.
Close analysis of the items a student gets right or wrong enables teachers to determine the specific reading skills the student has mastered. For example:
- making simple connections between sentences in a text
- using organisational features in informational text.
Also supports the identification of areas of weakness that could be addressed in teaching programs such as inferring an audience for a written text.
DART is referenced against the National English Profiles (1994) and the Curriculum and Standards Framework II (2000).
DART was selected as the tool for gathering quantitative measures of students’ literacy achievement in the Successful Interventions Literacy Research Project (DEET, 2001) as well as in the Restart initiative (2002-2004).
Limitations
It will take teachers some time to become familiar with the resource, as it is very comprehensive.
The scoring and interpretation of test results may require additional time and training for teachers.
Purchasing DART materials
The Developmental Assessment Resource for Teachers (DART) English – Middle Primary
Includes a manual, video, audiotape, picture story book, and one of each student answer booklet and stimulus booklet
Publication details: Wendy Bodey, Lynne Darkin, Margaret Forster and Geoff Masters, ACER Press, 1997.
RRP Middle Primary Specimen Set A000MPE: $169.00
The DART English – Upper Primary/Junior Secondary
Includes a manual, video, audiotape, poster and one of each student answer booklet and stimulus booklet.
Publication details: Margaret Forster, Juliette Mendelovits, Geoff Masters, ACER Press, 1994.
Upper Primary/Junior Secondary Specimen Set A000IZ: $132.00
Test Scoring Services
The Test Scoring Service scores and provides reports for a range of tests suitable for psychologists, HR and educational institutions.
Standard Report: $99 plus $0.99 per student (additional charge for APTS and DAT)
Group reports: Hard copy: $22 Electronic copy: $15 (additional charges for PAT Maths revised)
Individual reports: Hard copy: $1.38 per student Electronic copy: $0.99 per student
- Test Scoring Services - Download forms to order any of the publications above.
Please note that all RRP’s cited are for information purposes only. See the ACER Shop for up to date pricing information