The Australian Government has recently released information to the early childhood education and care sector about a new Preschool Outcomes Measure (POM).
The National Preschool Outcomes Measure involves 2 key elements:
- a new nationally consistent learning progressions in 2 learning domains – executive function, and oral language and literacy
- a new national assessment tool for teachers and educators to measure a child’s progress against these learning progressions.
The POM will be trialled in 2025 in other states and territories, but this will not impact the use of the Early Years Assessment and Learning Tool (EYALT) in Victoria.
The EYALT is the Victorian Government’s approved early learning assessment tool. Once the national learning progression is developed, Victoria will seek to confirm the alignment of the EYALT.
On this basis, Victorian services will not be required to participate in the national trial. The POM will not change the use of the EYALT in Victoria, and the rollout of the EYALT will continue as planned. The same policy parameters will continue to apply – for example, the use of the EYALT is not mandatory and child and service data will not be collected nationally.
The department remains committed to helping all onboarded services to implement the EYALT and support high-quality assessment for learning practices.
Many services across Victoria are well underway in using the EYALT with children attending funded 3- and 4-year-old kindergarten programs.
If your service is using the EYALT to complement existing assessment and teaching practices, you should continue to do so. Later this year, we will also seek expressions of interests from services who wish to use the EYALT in 2024.
All children benefit when assessment reflects a whole-child approach that reveals their strengths and shows what they might learn next. The EYALT is designed to support you with this in your day-to-day practice, to help you improve outcomes for children.
Find out more
To find out more about the Preschool Outcomes Measure, refer to the Australian Department of Education’s webpage(opens in a new window).
For further enquiries, contact the department by email: early.years.assessment@education.vic.gov.au
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