Title: Profiles and student assessment

Abstract: ‘Profile’ is a scale depicting progress in learning. The profiles of literacy consist of descriptions of reading, writing and spoken language. Each scale presents a detailed description in a series of nine levels called bands and labelled from A (lowest) to I (highest). They are designed to assist teachers, schools and systems with the complex process of assessment, recording and reporting on students’ developing competencies and achievements. An essential feature of a student’s profile is that it shows growth. Through its ordered sequence of bands, the profile makes explicit what it means to progress in learning. It provides a framework against which evidence of an individual’s progress can be charted and achievements of a school or even an education system can be monitored.