Diagnostic Assessment Tools in English Fact Sheet
About the assessment tool
A brief description of the
Tool
The Diagnostic Assessment Tools in English are a suite of validated assessment tools to enable teachers to:
 gain additional diagnostic information about students’ learning strengths and challenges in English
 plan for, and monitor the impact of teaching and literacy interventions throughout the year
 monitor student progress in one or more modes of English throughout students’ early literacy
development.
These tools assess the three modes of AusVELS English: Reading and Viewing, Writing, and Speaking and
Listening, and are particularly useful for students who are working outside the typical range of ability for
their age.
What does the assessment
tell you about the child?
These tools help teachers to clarify or elaborate on data obtained from the English Online Interview.
Completing all of the tasks within an assessment tool will provide an indicative AusVELS score. However,
teachers can select to use part of an assessment tool to support assessment of specific skills within reading
and viewing, writing, speaking and listening. If they choose this option, they will obtain assessment
information to inform their teaching but will not obtain an indicative AusVELS score.
Each tool includes questions of a range of difficulty that extend beyond and below the designated standard.
To indicate achievement of an AusVELS Level, students need to have answered most of the questions below
the difficulty level of the targeted AusVELS Level correctly as well as answering some of the questions above
the difficulty level of the targeted AusVELS Level correctly.
What are the educational
aspects being measured?
Early Literacy in English Tools is skill specific and assesses the emergent literacy skills that develop reading,
writing, and speaking and listening capabilities. Early Literacy in English comprises nine assessment tools
covering alphabet letters, comprehending text, concepts of print, phonemes, listening and recall, oral
language, phonological awareness, reading and writing.
There are nine Early Literacy in English Tools:

Alphabet Letters

Comprehending Text

Concepts of Print

Listening and Recall

Oral Language

Phonemes

Phonological Awareness

Reading

Writing
These tools are designed for students working towards AusVELS Foundation level, but they are divided into
three levels, these being Beginning (well below Progression Point 0.5), Progressing (around Progression Point
0.5) and Working Towards AusVELS Level 1.
The information gathered through the administration and marking of these tools provides teachers with
diagnostic information about students’ strengths and areas for future improvement and supports planning of
appropriate learning programs. Given the focused nature of these tools, the Early Literacy in English Tools
does not provide an indicative AusVELS English score.
The Monitoring Progress Tools is used to monitor student progress and identify areas requiring specific
teaching for students working towards AusVELS Levels 1 - 4.
These tools include:
 Reading and Viewing – covering a range of reading skills including retrieving information, linking
information; global understanding, making inferences and reflecting on the text. A range of text
types are used including imaginative, information, narrative and argument.
 Writing – primarily focus on students’ ability to produce first-drafts of complete pieces of writing
for a variety of purposes and to demonstrate appropriate planning and editing skills in narrative
writing, information reports and persuasive writing. Lists of words of increasing complexity and a
range of spelling patterns are also included to provide information about students’ spelling skills.
 Speaking and Listening – focus on comprehensive understanding of complete spoken word
covering oral language retell, comprehension retell and oral language conversation.
What are the components
of the tool (e.g. no of
questions/tasks, question
style, etc.)?
There are nine Early Literacy in English Tools and seventeen Monitoring Progress Tools.
What is the style of
assessment (e.g. interview,
self‐assessment)?
The Early Literacy in English tools are administered one-to-one, and take between 2 - 10 minutes to
administer.
Each of the Monitoring Progress Tools includes a variety of texts or purposes at each level.

The Reading Tool has five different texts at each level.

The Writing Tool has prompts with three different purposes: narrative, persuasive and information
report.

The Speaking and Listening Tool is a series of digital texts that include presentations of information,
instructional presentations and pair discussions. Teachers can select parts of the tools to
administer to find out how students respond to particular kinds of texts or writing purposes.
Alternatively, the teacher can administer all the tasks in the tool to identify the scope of students’
mastery of the skills in a dimension and obtain an indicative AusVELS score.
The Reading and Writing assessments can be completed by an individual, small group or a class, and take
between 30 – 50 minutes to administer.
The Speaking and Listening assessment is completed one-to-one and takes approximately 10 minutes to
administer. Students watch a short video and then answer questions.
An Administration and Marking Guide is provided for each tool. This provides all the information required to
select, administer and mark the tasks and also provides some follow up advice.
What are the limitations of
the tool (if any)?
The administration time for a single task varies from two minutes up to one hour, depending on the task.
The Early Literacy in English tools generally covers a wider range of skills than those described in the AusVELS
Foundation and Level 1. Students are not required to write a personal recount or to use a range of writing
implements and software. There is no assessment of student performance in discussion.
The Monitoring Progress Reading tools cannot address all the aspects of the AusVELS English domain,
especially at Levels 3 and 4. Some issues, such as symbolic meaning and stereotypes cannot be easily
addressed at a system level. These are issues that the classroom teacher needs to discuss with sensitivity to
the cultural backgrounds of students and the influences of those cultures on their understanding of symbols
and stereotypes.
It should be noted that students need to have experience with reading longer texts than those provided in
the Reading tools. Students would benefit from reading authentic electronic and multi-media texts also.
The Writing tools do not require students to produce a final polished piece of work, but the rubrics can be
used to score final pieces.
How long does the
assessment take?
The administration time for a single task varies from two minutes up to one hour, depending on the task.
How was the assessment
tool developed?
The Diagnostic Assessment Tools in English have been developed over 2010 to 2012 in response to the
identified need for early intervention and diagnosis in both low and high-achieving students, and to support
the English Online Interview by providing on-demand diagnostic assessments.
Background to the assessment tool
The project involved close consultation with the DEECD project team and extensive review by teachers, a
Domain Reference Group (DRG) consisting of early literacy experts, special schools, ACER internal experts
and other stakeholders. The project was jointly managed within ACER by the same people who managed the
development of the English Online Interview modules in 2007-08.
The assessment development phase involved participation of teachers through a pilot study. Nine pilot
schools, one per region, were administered draft diagnostic assessments from Prep to Year 5 to ensure
students would be working from AusVELS Foundation to Level 4. The pilot provided an important
opportunity for improving the assessment literacy of participating teachers, as well as ensuring that the
assessments were appropriate in content and practical to implement. DEECD received feedback from
specialist schools who participated in the pilot as a separate DEECD managed small-scale project.
How long has the tool been
used?
Relevant research
underpinning tool
Launched on 28 May 2013.
The Diagnostic Assessment Tools in English project has been developed in consultation with leading
academics and in consideration of current national and international research in the area of early year’s
literacy.
The project report includes a literature review which indicates the tools developed for this project reflect
recent developments in early years teaching and assessment practices and in some instances offer innovative
examples of testing materials that could guide future research. The Literature Review cites research that has
focused on the importance of early intervention and diagnosis for those students struggling with literacy, and
those surpassing expectations to which the Diagnostic Assessment Tools in English have been developed in
response to.
Validation process and
data for the tool
An equating study calibrated the diagnostic tools onto the English Online Interview scale to ensure the items
targeted the designated AusVELS Levels. The equating study also allowed for investigation of the item
statistics to evaluate the measurement integrity of the items. Putting the diagnostic assessments onto the
EOI scale also ensured that new EOI Diagnostic reports could advise teachers about appropriate starting
points in diagnostic tools.
Sixty schools were invited to participate in the equating study and fifty-eight returned student responses to
the assessments. Sufficient data was collected to allow calibration of the diagnostic assessments onto the
EOI scale.
Five schools were selected by DEECD from those participating in the equating study, to investigate teachers’
experience of the Diagnostic Assessment Tools in English and their understanding of the new EOI Diagnostic
Reports.
Supporting Information for the assessment tool
Link to the assessment tool
http://www.education.vic.gov.au/school/teachers/support/Pages/date.aspx