Description
Aligning curriculum and assessment is a core part of whole-school curriculum implementation. Assessment provides the evidence needed to evaluate student learning, measure progress against the achievement standards, and assess the impact of teaching, learning and curriculum strategies.
Consistent whole-school approaches to aligning curriculum and assessment support accurate teacher judgement, reduce duplication and generate meaningful evidence to inform next steps.
Key points
Leaders guide collaborative planning, support curriculum-informed assessment design and lead the use of achievement standards to evaluate student learning.
Aligning curriculum and assessment ensures students are assessed on what they have been taught and supports consistent interpretation of learning across the school. It reduces teacher workload by eliminating duplication and clarifying expectations.
- Aspect overview
- Guiding questions and AITSL standards
- Support resources
- Research and further reading
Overview
The Australian Curriculum achievement standards describe the expected quality of learning students should typically demonstrate at the end of each year level or band of years. Content descriptions are directly connected to the achievement standard statements. They specify the essential knowledge, understanding and skills that students are expected to learn. Effective assessment practices use both the achievement standards and the content descriptions.
All forms of assessment aim to gather evidence of student learning. They should provide a holistic view of student achievement against the achievement standards and support improved student learning.
Summative assessment measures how well students have met the expected quality of learning described in the achievement standard. This approach to assessment may take many forms and is developed as part of the process of planning for learning.
Formative assessment occurs during the teaching and learning cycle. This approach to assessment supports teachers to identify students’ starting points, monitor progress, offer feedback to students, and guide instructional decision-making and planning. Formative assessment is intentionally focused on specific content and skills to elicit evidence of what students currently know and can do. This helps teachers to adjust their teaching to support the next steps in learning.
School and curriculum leaders play a key role in ensuring both formative and summative assessment are clearly aligned with the curriculum.
Assessment is a key aspect of developing a whole-school approach to curriculum planning.
Assessment provides the evidence necessary to evaluate student learning.
Effective assessment uses both the Australian Curriculum achievement standards and content descriptions to gather evidence of student progress and achievement.
This five-step process shows how connecting curriculum and assessment supports aligned and purposeful planning.
Step 1 Define achievement. Use the achievement standards to identify and describe what students should know and be able to do by the end of a teaching and learning cycle.
Step 2 Plan curriculum content. Identify the connected content descriptions that students need to learn, to progress towards the learning described in the achievement standard and consider what learning is required.
Step 3 Plan summative assessment. Design and schedule assessments to gather evidence of student learning against the achievement standard.
Step 4 Plan formative assessment. Design and schedule assessments to gather evidence of what students know and can do.
This evidence can actively inform teaching and support progress towards the learning described in the achievement standards.
Step 5 Evaluate. Evaluate assessment approaches to ensure the evidence gathered supported student learning, and enabled judgments about progress against the achievement standard.
By using this process, schools use the connection between curriculum and assessment to guide teaching, support students and progress learning.
Five-step process for aligning curriculum and assessment
1. Define achievement
Use the achievement standard to identify and describe what students should know and be able to do by the end of a teaching and learning cycle.
2. Plan curriculum content
Identify the connected content descriptions that students need to learn to progress towards the learning described in the achievement standard, and consider what learning is required.
3. Plan summative assessment
Design and schedule assessments to gather evidence of student learning against the achievement standard.
4. Plan formative assessment
Design and schedule assessments to gather evidence of what students know and can do. This evidence can actively inform teaching and support progress towards the learning described in the achievement standard.
5. Evaluate
Evaluate assessment approaches to ensure the evidence gathered supported student learning and enabled judgements about progress against the achievement standard.
Further advice and resources related to formative assessment can be found on ACARA’s Formative Assessment resources page.
School and curriculum leaders may also consider other curriculum leadership aspects to support the development of a whole-school approach to aligning curriculum and assessment. Consider the following questions when making decisions about existing approaches and staff needs when developing a whole-school approach to implementing the Australian Curriculum.
Building teacher capability
What professional learning is required to support teachers to effectively design curriculum-aligned assessments?
Using the Australian Curriculum
How do approaches to reviewing and evaluating assessments ensure that all aspects of the achievement standard are addressed?
Sequencing learning
How are summative and formative assessments planned so they align with agreed learning sequences?
Including all learners
How are assessments designed for all students to demonstrate their learning in relation to the achievement standards?
Planning for multi-age classes
How are assessments designed in multi-age classes to remain clearly aligned to the achievement standards and content descriptions for each year level?
Engaging with community
How are parents/carers communicated with about the purpose of different forms of assessment?
Evaluating resources
How are assessments embedded in classroom resources evaluated to ensure they provide credible, curriculum-aligned evidence of student learning and support accurate teacher judgement?
Reflect–Act–Evaluate cycle
The Reflect–Act–Evaluate cycle is a practical framework designed to support continuous improvement. It encourages thoughtful engagement by guiding leaders through 3 key phases.
Reflect: this phase invites leaders to pause and consider current practices, beliefs and outcomes. It promotes deeper understanding by asking, “What is happening?” and “Why is it happening?” before moving to action.
Act: based on insights gained through reflection, this phase focuses on intentional decision-making and implementation. It asks, “What will we do?” and “How will we do it?” to ensure actions are purposeful and aligned with school priorities.
Evaluate: after action is taken, this phase supports review and learning. It prompts leaders to ask, “What changed?” and “What did we learn?” to assess impact and inform future cycles of improvement.
Figure 1: The Reflect–Act–Evaluate cycle
Guiding questions
The guiding questions in the accordions below are structured around the ‘Reflect–Act–Evaluate' cycle to help school and curriculum leaders reflect on current approaches to curriculum implementation and lead discussions with teachers. School and curriculum leaders should select from these questions to support decision-making and discussions when reflecting on, actioning and evaluating a whole-school approach to aligning curriculum and assessment.
Reflect How clearly do our planned assessments align with achievement standards and student learning?
Act How do we design and implement approaches to summative assessment to measure achievement standards reliably and consistently?
Evaluate What evidence demonstrates that our approach to summative assessment consistently aligned with achievement standards and accurately reflected student learning?
Reflect Does our approach to summative assessment give students the opportunity to demonstrate the full scope of learning in the achievement standards?
Act How can we support teachers to design and schedule summative assessment that validly captures the full scope of student knowledge, skills and understanding in the achievement standards?
Evaluate How effectively did the approach to summative assessment capture the full scope of student knowledge, skills and understanding described in the achievement standards?
Reflect What types of evidence do we use to identify and share student progress towards the achievement standards?
Act What systems can we use to clearly identify and share evidence that shows progress towards the achievement standards?
Evaluate How effectively have the implemented systems enabled timely identification and sharing of evidence that demonstrates student progress towards achievement standards?
Reflect How do we ensure teachers know what types of evidence are most useful to guide future student learning?
Act How can we help teachers consistently collect and use evidence that informs next steps in student learning?
Evaluate To what extent has the evidence collected by teachers effectively informed differentiated teaching and improved student outcomes?
Reflect To what extent are our assessments generating feedback that informs and improves teaching and learning?
Act How can we support teachers in designing assessments that produce timely, actionable feedback to improve student learning?
Evaluate How has feedback from assessments improved teaching practices and student learning outcomes?
Reflect How well do our current assessments support inclusion and accessibility for every learner?
Act How can we support teachers to design inclusive assessments that promote equitable learning outcomes?
Evaluate How do we know that assessments were accessible to all students and supported equitable learning outcomes?
Reflect How effectively do we use assessment evidence to reflect student achievement and guide teaching across the school?
Act What school-wide actions can improve the accuracy and use of credible assessment evidence in teaching?
Evaluate Which school-wide actions have most effectively strengthened reliable judgements and made evidence of learning and informed teaching more credible?
Reflect How do we currently evaluate and improve the quality and effectiveness of assessments over time?
Act When and how can assessment review be embedded in our planning and moderation cycles to ensure ongoing effectiveness?
Evaluate How well have our assessment review processes improved the overall quality and effectiveness of our assessments, and what could we do to further strengthen these?
AITSL Standards
School and curriculum leaders are responsible for establishing a whole-school shared understanding of the relationship between curriculum and assessment. While existing systems for data collection and reporting to parents may already be in place, effective assessment begins during the planning for learning stage. These decisions must also reflect state and territory requirements for assessment and reporting.
The information that follows outlines the relevant standards from the Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership (AITSL) Australian Professional Standard for Principals, Australian Professional Standards for Middle Leaders and the Australian Professional Standards for teachers: Lead career stage. These standards have been identified to support school and curriculum leaders in implementing whole‑school approaches to aligning curriculum and assessment.
Professional Practice: Leading teaching and learning
- Principals create a positive culture of challenge and support, enabling effective teaching that promotes enthusiastic, independent learners, committed to lifelong learning. Principals have a key responsibility for developing a culture of effective teaching, for leading, designing and managing the quality of teaching and learning and for students’ achievement in all aspects of their development. They set high expectations for the whole school through careful collaborative planning, monitoring and reviewing the effectiveness of learning. Principals set high standards of behaviour and attendance, encouraging active engagement and a strong student voice.
Professional Practice: Developing self and others
- Principals work with and through others to build a professional learning community that is focused on continuous improvement of teaching and learning. Through managing performance, effective continuing professional learning and feedback, they support all staff to achieve high standards and develop their leadership capacity. Principals support others to build capacity and treat people fairly and with respect. They model effective leadership and are committed to their own ongoing professional development and personal health and wellbeing in order to manage the complexity of the role and the range of learning capabilities and actions required of the role.
Core standards
Standard 4 Coordinating high-impact teaching and learning
- Middle leaders can have responsibilities for coordinating the delivery of quality programs of instruction to build students’ content knowledge and skills with high expectations of student progress and achievement. Practices within this standard align curriculum, pedagogy and assessment to meet learner needs and maximise learning progress for all learners. In demonstrating the practices described in this standard the middle leader will draw, in particular, on deep knowledge of evidence based teaching practices combined with educational insights from cognitive science and other research on how students learn. They will also draw on their knowledge of curriculum content, progressions and assessment to enable student learning progress to be monitored and improved over time.
4a Curriculum
- Providing a clear, structured and knowledge rich curriculum with high expectations of systematically building students’ content knowledge, skills and understandings to enable learning progress for all students.
4b Pedagogy
- Prioritising the use of effective, evidence based teaching strategies and application of insights from cognitive science and other research on how students learn, to optimise systematic deep learning through effective pedagogical practices.
4c Assessment
- Ensuring a program of assessment which provides timely and valid data to enable student learning progress to be monitored to inform teaching and continued learning.
Standard 5 Leading improvement in teaching practice
- Leading improvement through collaboration and teamwork is central to the work of middle leaders. Middle leaders are often key to implementing the school’s instructional improvement agenda, using their understanding of research evidence about improvement combined with their deep knowledge of school data. They work collaboratively with staff to implement actions to improve teaching and learning and cultivate a sense of collective efficacy. Middle leaders have a strong focus on continuous professional learning for themselves and their staff, with a focus on supporting classroom implementation of evidence-based practice. They provide support and challenge through provision of constructive feedback while collaborating with staff to improve practice and amplify impact which may occur through a model of mentoring, coaching and professional inquiry.
5c Collaborative practice
- Leveraging collaborative practice to monitor and improve the impact of teaching on student learning and wellbeing.
Professional knowledge
Standard 2 Know the content and how to teach it
2.3 Curriculum, assessment and reporting
- Lead colleagues to develop learning and teaching programs using comprehensive knowledge of curriculum, assessment and reporting requirements.
Professional practice
Standard 5 Assess, provide feedback and report on student learning
5.1 Assess student learning
- Evaluate school assessment policies and strategies to support colleagues with: using assessment data to diagnose learning needs, complying with curriculum, system and/or school assessment requirements and using a range of assessment strategies.
5.2 Provide feedback to students on their learning
- Model exemplary practice and initiate programs to support colleagues in applying a range of timely, effective and appropriate feedback strategies.
5.3 Make consistent and comparable judgements
- Lead and evaluate moderation activities that ensure consistent and comparable judgements of student learning to meet curriculum and school or system requirements.
5.4 Interpret student data
- Coordinate student performance and program evaluation using internal and external student assessment data to improve teaching practice.
Australian Professional Standards for Teachers Lead Career Stage
Staff meeting resources
These resources provide a structured starting point for collaborative discussion and reflection on current approaches to whole-school curriculum planning. They include facilitator notes, activity documents and supporting presentation slides designed to guide whole-school reflection and planning.
The materials are flexible and can be adapted to suit different school contexts, priorities and focus areas for discussion.
The facilitator notes and accompanying presentation slides have been developed to support whole group discussions when reflecting on current approaches to aligning curriculum and assessment.
Presentation materials
Aligning curriculum and assessment facilitator notes
Aligning curriculum and assessment PowerPoint presentation
Documents
Aligning curriculum and assessment reflection
Professional learning for school and curriculum leaders
ACARA has developed a professional learning course to support school and curriculum leaders to develop a deeper understanding of the advice, resources and research in the Aligning curriculum and assessment aspect. This course will support leaders to:
- understand how to apply a process to align curriculum and assessment
- identify how to develop a whole-school approach to curriculum-informed assessment design.
This course supports school and curriculum leaders to reflect on current practice and initiate planning a whole-school approach to curriculum implementation.
Access to this course is through ACARA’s Professional Learning Hub.
Five-step process for aligning curriculum and assessment
When working with teachers to build their capability in designing curriculum aligned assessments, school and curriculum leaders can review the 5-step process video found in the aspect overview tab to support initiating discussion and refining approaches to planning.
A planning for assessment guide has been developed to use as a starting point to support teachers as they build their expertise in assessment design. This process ensures the starting point for assessment is focused on identifying what students should be able to know, understand and do. It moves to teachers developing and scheduling the approaches to summative and formative assessment they will use, and includes an evaluation of the efficacy of the approaches.
Planning for assessment guide.docx
Formative assessment
Formative assessment brings together assessment design and classroom practice to support teaching and improve student learning. It is most powerful when intentionally designed and seamlessly embedded into everyday teaching. Formative assessment involves implementing assessments that align with the curriculum and using them during teaching to gather purposeful and manageable evidence of students’ learning. Teachers use this evidence to adapt their teaching, respond to student needs, and guide learning towards curriculum expectations and progress over time.
ACARA’s formative assessment resources support teachers to design and implement formative assessment effectively, through resources and advice on understanding, designing and embedding formative assessment.
Further advice and resources related to formative assessment can be found on ACARA’s Formative assessment resources page.
Work samples
Each work sample collection demonstrates evidence of student learning in relation to aspects of the achievement standards for a subject and/or a learning area.
Each collection comprises a selection of student work drawn from a range of activities or tasks. The collections have been selected, annotated and reviewed by classroom teachers and other curriculum experts. ACARA acknowledges the contribution of Australian teachers in the development of these work sample collections.
Research
AERO (Australian Education Research Organisation) (2022) Formative assessment: Gathering and interpreting information to progress student learning, AERO, accessed 14 January 2026.
CESE (Centre for Education Statistics and Evaluation) (2015) Re-assessing Assessment, CESE, accessed 14 January 2026.
CSAI (Centre on Standards and Assessment Information) (2018) Standards Alignment to Curriculum and Assessment, CSAI, accessed 14 January 2026.
Hunter J and Haywood A (2023) How to implement a whole-school curriculum approach: A guide for principals, Grattan Institute, accessed 14 January 2026.
Martone A and Sireci SG (2009) “Evaluating alignment between curriculum, assessment, and instruction”, Review of educational research, 79(4):1332–1361.
OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) (2015) Education Policy Outlook 2015: Making Reforms Happen, OECD Publishing, doi:10.1787/9789264225442-en.
Schildkamp K, van der Kleij FM, Heitink MC, Kippers WB and Veldkamp BP (2020) “Formative assessment: A systematic review of critical teacher prerequisites for classroom practice”, International Journal of Educational Research, 103, doi:10.1016/j.ijer.2020.101602.
Webb NL (2007) “Issues related to judging the alignment of curriculum standards and assessment”, Applied measurement in education, 20(1):7–25.
Wiliam D (2007) “Keeping learning on track: classroom assessment and the regulation of learning”, in Lester FK (Ed), Second handbook of research on mathematics teaching and learning:1053–1098, Greenwich: Information Age Publishing.
Ziebell N and Clarke D (2018) “Curriculum alignment: Performance types in the intended, enacted, and assessed curriculum in primary mathematics and science classrooms”, Studia paedagogica, 23(2), 175–203.
Research summary - Aligning curriculum and assessment
Further reading
ACER (Australian Council for Educational Research) (2023) School Improvement Tool, ACER, doi:10.37517/978-1-74286-700-7.
Bennett RE (2011) “Formative assessment: A critical review”, Assessment in education: principles, policy & practice, 18(1):5–25.
New South Wales Education Standards Authority (n.d.) “Assessment and reporting”, NSW Education Standards Authority website, accessed 14 January 2026.
QCAA (Queensland Curriculum and Assessment Authority) (n.d.) “Understanding K–12 Assessment”, QCAA website, accessed 14 January 2026.
VCAA (Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority) (n.d.) “Formative Assessment”, VCAA website, accessed 14 January 2026.