Does Acadience align with Australian curriculum standards?
The short answer is yes, but schools need to know the essential skills needed for students to meet benchmarks in each grade level.
Photo by Joey Csunyo on Unsplash.
Schools are increasingly seeing the importance of universal screening assessments such as DIBELS and Acadience. These assessment tools are used for evaluating the impact of instruction, identifying students who need extra support and driving improvement.
As someone who advocates for universal screening in mathematics, one question I encounter from schools is whether Acadience, an American assessment, aligns with local curriculum standards in Australia. Luckily for you, I’ve gone through the Computation Fluency assessments for Grades 1 to 6, analysed which skills are essential to meet the end of year benchmark and compared them to the Victorian Curriculum to check alignment.
There are four categories of skills in Acadience Computation
Category 1: Essential skills aligned with the Victorian Curriculum
These are the skills that students need in order to meet the end-of-year benchmark. Because these are aligned with the Victorian Curriculum, school leaders should ensure these skills are explicitly taught in the given year level or earlier. Leaders should also ensure that adequate opportunities are given for students to develop fluency over the course of the year.
Category 2: Non-essential skills aligned with the Victorian Curriculum
Skills are ‘non-essential’ when they are not required in order to meet the end-of-year benchmark in Acadience Computation. Because skills in this category are also aligned with the Victorian Curriculum, they also need to be explicitly taught and students need to be given adequate fluency practice. It’s important to have a focus, so prioritise essential skills before the non-essential skills.
Category 3: Non-essential skills that are arguably aligned with the Victorian Curriculum
The alignment of these skills with the Victorian Curriculum can be argued both ways. If school leaders interpret these skills as aligning with the Victorian Curriculum, they will provide for the skills to be taught and practised. However, even if leaders decide these skills don’t align with grade-level expectations, they may indicate opportunities for extension depending on the proficiency of students.
Category 4: Non-essential skills that are not aligned with the Victorian Curriculum
Although these skills are not aligned with the Victorian Curriculum, school leaders might choose to teach these skills to prepare students for the following year and because students have proven their readiness.
Now that we’ve establised these four categories of skills, let’s look at the specifics.
Category 1: Essential skills aligned with the Victorian Curriculum
Students need these skills to meet the end-of-year benchmark. Ensure you teach these skills and provide opportunities for practice.
Grade 1
Addition and subtraction facts within 20
Grade 2
Addition and subtraction facts within 20
Adding and subtracting 2-digit numbers without regrouping
Grade 3
Adding and subtracting 3-digit numbers
Multiplication and division facts with a product of 20 or less
Grade 4
Adding and subtracting 4-digit numbers
All multiplication and division facts
Multiplying and dividing a 3-digit number by a 1-digit number
[A note on division: Acadience Computation at this level includes division that results in a quotient and remainder. However, students can meet benchmark by calculating quotients even if they leave out any remainders.]
Grade 5
Adding and subtracting 4-digit numbers
Multiplying and dividing a 3-digit number by a 1-digit number
Multiplying a 3-digit number by a 2-digit number
Grade 6
Adding and subtracting decimals to hundredths
Multiplying a 3-digit number by a 2-digit number
Dividing a 4-digit number by a 2-digit number
[A note on division: The Victorian Curriculum does not explicitly state the size of divisors at this grade level. Alignment needs to be inferred from the fact that from Grade 4, students are expected to divide by multiples of 10 (VC2M4N05), for example 360 ÷ 40 = 9. Dividing by a 2-digit number is also a prerequisite skill for dividing by decimals in Year 7 (VC2M7N05, VC2M7N06) for example solving 34 ÷ 1.7 using 340 ÷ 17.]
Category 2: Non-essential skills aligned with the Victorian Curriculum
Teach these in addition to the essential skills.
Grade 1
Adding ones to teen numbers with a result less than 20
Subtracting ones from teen numbers with a result more than 10
Adding to a sum of 20
Subtracting from 20
Grade 2
Adding and subtracting 2-digit numbers with regrouping
Adding 2-digit numbers (more than 2 addends)
Grade 3
Multiplying a 2-digit number by a 1-digit number
Grade 5
Adding and subtracting fractions and mixed numbers with the same denominator
Adding and subtracting fractions and mixed numbers with related denominators
Grade 6
Adding and subtracting fractions with unlike denominators
Category 3: Non-essential skills that are arguably aligned with the Victorian Curriculum
Whether these align with grade-level expectations is up to interpretation. Either way, if students have the prerequisite knowledge, they indicate opportunities for extension.
Grade 4
Adding and subtracting fractions and mixed numbers with the same denominator - This is strongly related to the expectation to count by fractions on a number line (VC2M4N04), for example starting at 3-quarters and counting on 2-quarters. Before teaching this skill, ensure students can represent fractions in different ways and deal with fractions on a number line.
Multiplying by a 2-digit number - This is strongly related to multiplying numbers by multiples of 10 (VC2M4N05), for example 36 × 50. Before teaching this skill, ensure students are fluent in multiplying by a 1-digit number and multiples of 10.
Grade 5
Dividing by a 2-digit number - Australian curricula do not specify the size of divisors in division problems (VC2M5N07). One reason to interpret division at this grade-level to include 2-digit divisors is that this is a natural progression from the previous year’s expectation to divide by multiples of 10 (VC2M4N05), for example 360 ÷ 40 = 9. Before teaching this skill, ensure students are fluent in dividing by a 1-digit number, can multiply and divide by multiples of 10 and use that knowledge to estimate quotients when dividing by a 2-digit number.
Category 4: Non-essential skills that do not align with the Victorian Curriculum
These skills don’t need to be prioritised. However, if students have the prerequisite knowledge, they indicate opportunities for extension.
Grade 3
All multiplication and division facts - If students develop fluency in times tables of 2, 3, 4, 5 and 10, progress to times tables of 6, 7, 8 and 9.
Grade 5
Adding and subtracting fractions with unrelated denominators - If students develop fluency in adding and subtracting fractions with related fractions, progress to fractions with unrelated denominators.
Grade 6
Multiplying decimals - If students have developed fluency in multiplying whole numbers, progress to multiplying decimals by whole numbers, then multiplying decimals by decimals.
Dividing decimals - If students develop fluency in dividing by 2-digit numbers, progress to dividing by 2-digit decimals.
