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Teachers at public primary schools across Western Australia have been directed to provide no more than 1000 characters of written feedback in student reports, down from the previous maximum of 4000 characters, raising concerns around the quality of that feedback.
A document published online by the WA Department of Education regarding curriculum assessment reporting states: “the only written comment is an overall comment that for pre-primary to year 6, is limited to 1000 characters and includes information on the student’s learning in English and mathematics.”
For years 7 to 10, the limit is 600 characters.
Previously, primary school teachers were able to provide comments for all learning areas, but this is now limited to just English and mathematics and is consolidated into the 1000 words rather than being listed separately.
WA Primary Principals Association president Niel Smith said while reducing the word count in report comments may reduce a small element of workload for teachers, other issues would need to be “ironed out”.
“Examples include having to now include a maths and English comment into the general comment, with an already reduced word count, and schools having no ability to provide comments for anomalies in a learning area, such as why no grade has been issued,” Smith said.
“Any initiative to reduce workload is welcomed, but these initiatives must consider the workload of all school staff, inclusive of school leaders.”
He said he acknowledged that the information parents were seeking in primary reports likely differed to secondary reports, which are “based heavily in exams, assessments and grades linked to scores”.
“Primary reports focus on content covered, progress, achievement, attitudes and effort, which may sometimes require more detailed comments,” he said.
“Many primary schools combine formal reports each semester, with other methods of reporting to parents such as parent interviews and open nights, in which parents can view students’ work and informally talk to teachers.
“This year, schools have been given the option to run parent interviews over a full school day and continuing after school hours, on two separate occasions throughout the year.
“Many schools have taken up this opportunity and are monitoring parent and staff feedback.”
But he said depending on how those parent teacher interviews were being conducted and prepared for, it may also create additional workload for teaching staff and school leaders.
“WAPPA supports an informal approach to these interviews, given the very short time frame and availability of formal reports,” he said.
Department of Education people and student achievement deputy director general Melesha Sands said changes to the reporting template had been made following stakeholder consultation with school and families, including the WA Council of State School Organisations which represents P&Cs.
“These include a standard template for reporting to parents in pre-primary to year 10 and the introduction of additional time for parents and teachers to meet to discuss student progress,” she said.
“The extra time to talk with teachers is a measure to allow for meaningful engagement about student progress for parents.
“Consultation is ongoing for reporting to parents for kindergarten students, Year 11 and 12 students and students with a disability.”
Parents have also raised concerns around the use of artificial intelligence in the writing of school reports and have said that this, paired with the reduced length, could vastly reduce the quality of the feedback.
In WA, teachers are not banned from using AI to help them write school reports, unlike in other states across Australia, and are instead only cautioned about the way it is used.
The Education Department did not respond to a question from this masthead around whether AI should now be banned in this context given the cut in report card length.
