ACER offers a wide range of professional learning and training options to support you in making a real difference in students' learning.
If you would like to discuss any of the following options, please contact us at school.engagement@acer.org
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Video conferences and school visits
Aimed at educators who are keen to develop and further their knowledge and understanding of PAT or other ACER school assessments. Ideally suited to staff responsible for administering or reporting on assessments, or for implementing teaching and learning strategies informed by assessment results.
Initial consultation (20-minute video conferences)
- Chat about PAT
- Chat about other ACER assessments
Cost: Nil
Extended consultation (90-minute video conference)
- PAT overview
- Understanding PAT Adaptive
- Interrogating PAT reports
- Monitoring PAT learning growth
Cost: $680.00 inc. GST
Workshops
The half-day and full-day workshops are tailored to your school's needs. Staff can ask questions and discuss with colleagues while looking at your school data in real time, with an ACER presenter available to answer any questions or assist in identifying areas of development.
Cost:
$1350.00 inc. GST per ACER presenter for half-day workshop (3 hours)
$2680.00 inc. GST per ACER presenter for full-day workshop (6 hours)
Note that all face-to-face school visits will incur travel and accommodation costs in addition to the initial registration fees. For workshop sessions of more than 25 attendees, two ACER presenters are required.
These sessions are priced for individual schools, for more information about group, system, network, or multiple school bookings, please contact the school.engagement@acer.org team.
Understanding PAT workshop
This workshop is designed for educators who want to develop their knowledge and understanding of PAT and the Progressive Achievement approach. It provides an overview of PAT implementation in the Maths and Reading domains, from accessing student data to identifying students’ next steps in their learning, in a range of school environments.
See a list of upcoming workshop dates here.
In this highly practical workshop, you will learn how to analyse student assessment data effectively to determine their understanding of key skills and concepts and identify their teaching and learning needs. It is highly recommended that you arrange access to the data in your school’s online account for use in this session to make the learning as relevant and realistic as possible.
Every step of the PAT assessment process will be covered, from tutorials and investigation tasks demonstrating how to access student data, to case studies illustrating simple reporting and data interrogation methods that will help you link data with teaching practice.
The evidence-based, holistic Progressive Achievement approach helps educators monitor student growth and target teaching where it is needed most, and the Understanding PAT workshop will show you how to get the most from your PAT data.
Cost: $440.00 incl. GST (per attendee)
Team experience
Matt Bongetti
Senior Project Officer
Matt Bongetti is a former primary school teacher whose role at ACER is to aid and support schools and systems in their use of online assessments. Matt has the unique perspective of seeing both sides of PAT, having delivered PAT tests as a teacher and now working with schools. His work as part of the School Engagement team involves developing and delivering content to schools through school visits, video conferences, webinars, and workshops.
Alex Gates
Customer Support Officer
Before joining ACER in 2021, Alex worked in as a primary school teacher, which gave him valuable insight into the current educational landscape and the challenges faced by both teachers and learners alike. His favourite part of his role in the School Engagement team is providing a sense of clarity to teachers and helping them to understand the many products and services offered by ACER. He also enjoys helping to produce ‘Improving Learning with ACER’, a podcast aimed at helping educators to make data-informed decisions in their practice.
Daniel O’Loughlin
Project Director
Daniel O’Loughlin is a former primary and secondary school teacher whose role at ACER is to aid and support schools and systems in their use of assessment. Daniel was seconded to ACER UK in 2017, where he developed and launched the Scottish National Standardised Assessments in collaboration with Education Scotland and the Scottish Government. Daniel has developed the ACER online webinar series and delivers presentations and workshops on ACER products such as the Progressive Achievement (PAT) suite. Daniel is currently the project director of the School Engagement team in ACER’s school assessment services.
Marc Kralj
Education Consultant
Marc Kralj is the Educational Consultant for ACER’s School Assessment Services Unit. The focus of Marc’s work is to support school leaders and teaching staff to implement ACER’s Progressive Achievement approach using PAT. Before joining ACER, Marc held a range of different positions within the government education sector (Department for Education, South Australia) for over thirty years. Marc has a deep understanding of the implementation of assessment strategies, moderation and reporting, curriculum content and learning design. He has extensive knowledge in using data and evidence to support teachers in developing a deeper understanding to inform teaching and learning practices in and across a school context. He has held several leadership roles that specifically supported the Australian Curriculum, special needs programs, assessment and reporting, information technology and school data analysis.
Alicia Wale
Senior Project Officer
Alicia has worked for ACER in the schools assessment area for almost four years helping teachers and schools through the OARS helpdesk. She now also works in School Engagement, both face-to-face and through video consultations, assisting schools to identify strengths, weaknesses and gaps to inform teaching and learning practices. For many years Alicia worked as a curator of fine art, which eventually led to a role where she facilitated arts learning programs at a community centre in Melbourne. This role furthered her interest in education and gave her valuable experience for the work that she also does at ACER facilitating online courses for understanding PAT and data analysis. Her favourite part of working at ACER is helping teachers and school staff with the important role they have in educating students