Centre for Education Statistics and Evaluation Overview
CENTRE FOR EDUCATION STATISTICS AND EVALUATION
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Message from the Minister I am very pleased to announce the establishment of the new Centre for Education Statistics and Evaluation in NSW. NSW has a strong tradition of leadership in education and training. The Centre will have a critical role to play as the Government guides the State through an exciting period of reform, introducing skills reform and improvements to early childhood education and care, and with ambitious plans in the areas of teaching quality and school decision making. The Centre for Education Statistics and Evaluation will be Australia’s first dedicated hub for deep analysis and understanding of education program effectiveness and the interaction between education and social and economic outcomes. It will also provide information for whole-of-government decision making. The Centre will deliver much needed information about what works and what’s effective. It will provide necessary evidence for educators to critically examine their practices and will clarify the best way to support them to learn from each other and continue to develop their professional practice. The work of the Centre will be guided by a high level Advisory Council. I am very pleased to welcome Dr John Ainley as the inaugural chair of the Council who will lead an impressive list of national and international experts.
Adrian Piccoli MP Minister for Education CENTRE FOR EDUCATION STATISTICS AND EVALUATION
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About the Centre The Centre for Education Statistics and Evaluation (CESE) is an innovative hub of education data and evaluation located within the Department of Education and Communities. It has been created to improve the effectiveness, efficiency and accountability of education in NSW. CESE is the central point of education evidence and will ensure decisions are information-based and investment is targeted to maximise the benefits to all students and taxpayers in NSW. It will turn data into knowledge, harvesting existing data sources and consolidating the responsibility for evaluation, statistics, data analysis and reporting. This will create new opportunities to improve teaching and learning across all of education – early childhood, schooling, training and higher education. CESE will provide information about the effectiveness of different programs and strategies in different contexts – put simply, it will identify and share what works.
The Centre’s three main responsibilities are: 1. to provide data analysis, information and evaluation that improve effectiveness, efficiency and accountability 2. to create a one-stop shop for information needs – a single access point to the Department’s data that has appropriate safeguards to protect data confidentiality and integrity 3. to build capacity across the whole education sector by developing intelligent tools to make complex data easy to use and understand, and providing accessible reports so that everyone can make better use of data.
Part of the Centre’s mission is to provide quality evidence to the NSW Minister for Education, and educators across early childhood, school, training and higher education. Importantly, teachers will be able to find out what works in different situations and make choices about effective practices for use in their classrooms. Collaboration is a key element to the operation of the CESE. The Centre will build relationships and work actively with partner organisations that share an interest in making effective use of available data to improve education outcomes.
CENTRE FOR EDUCATION STATISTICS AND EVALUATION
WWW.DET.NSW.EDU.AU
CESE Advisory Council The work of the Centre will be guided by a high level Advisory Council, bringing together cross-sectoral perspectives and national and international expertise. The Council will provide independent advice and will oversee the work of the Centre, identifying its strategic priorities and ensuring the integrity and relevance of its operations to stakeholders in Government and in the wider education community.
adequate safeguards are in place to protect the integrity and confidentiality of the data made available to the Centre ■■
providing input into the progress of the Centre’s projects to ensure they meet high standards of rigour, independence and integrity.
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advising the Minister on the findings of major strategic evaluations and other analyses undertaken by the Centre
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developing clear governance and quality assurance processes that will apply to evaluation and research activity undertaken by the Centre ensuring
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r John Ainley (Chair), Principal Research D Fellow, and former Deputy CEO (Research), at the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) Emeritus Professor Denise Bradley AC P rofessor Deborah Brennan, Social Policy Research Centre, The University of NSW r Nicholas Gruen, Chief Executive Officer, D Lateral Economics P rofessor Shane Houston, Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Indigenous Strategy and Services), The University of Sydney
Leslie Loble, Chief Executive, Office of Education, NSW Department of Education and Communities ■■
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CENTRE FOR EDUCATION STATISTICS AND EVALUATION
r Caralee McLiesh, Deputy Secretary, D Human and Social Services, NSW Treasury r Lisa O’Brien, Chief Executive Officer, D The Smith Family P rofessor Andreas Schleicher, Deputy Director for Education and Special Advisor on Education Policy to the SecretaryGeneral, OECD (France) R obert Schwartz, Francis Keppel Professor of Practice of Educational Policy and Administration, Harvard Graduate School of Education (USA) P rofessor Peter Shergold AC, Chancellor, University of Western Sydney r Brian Stecher, Associate Director, RAND D Education, The RAND Corporation (USA). WWW.DET.NSW.EDU.AU
About the Chair, Dr John Ainley
Dr Ainley is a member of the Consortium Advisory Group for the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children and the Youth Advisory Group for the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. He is a member of the Editorial Board of Education Research and Evaluation and was previously Editor of the Australian Journal of Education. He has been a visiting scholar
CENTRE FOR EDUCATION STATISTICS AND EVALUATION
at the Far West Laboratory for Educational Research in San Francisco and the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education. During his career at the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER), Dr Ainley directed a number of policy-oriented research and evaluation studies for national and State education authorities.
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Inform policy initiatives and effectively position NSW on key education policy and planning issues at state and national levels in the context of state, national and international trends Attract high level expertise and appropriate funding. Establish effective independent governance through CESE Advisory Council
Producing new in-depth analysis and evaluation
Building the Centre
CESE initial priorities 2012-13 Continuing core business
Collect and provide data to internal/ external clients. Manage the Department’s evaluation projects including National Partnerships
Produce user-friendly syntheses of key research findings on significant educational issues and/or analysis of departmental and other data sets
Making the evidence base available and easy to understand
Developing business intelligence tools
Creating one stop shop for education data
Make it easy for approved users to access data to support decision making
Ensure the Centre has access to the data it needs to provide a one-stop shop service for NSW education data
CENTRE FOR EDUCATION STATISTICS AND EVALUATION
WWW.DET.NSW.EDU.AU
Contact details For more information about the Centre for Education Statistics and Evaluation, please contact us: E
[email protected] W www.det.nsw.edu.au/cese
CENTRE FOR EDUCATION STATISTICS AND EVALUATION
WWW.DET.NSW.EDU.AU
GPO Box 33 Sydney NSW 2001 Australia T 9561 8000 www.det.nsw.edu.au © August 2012 NSW Department of Education and Communities
Education & Communities
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