Setting every student up for a successful pathway in Years 11 and 12

About the school

Hampton Park Secondary College is a large, culturally diverse community of around 1,300 students, located in Melbourne. More than 70% of students speak a language other than English at home, and many families are recent arrivals.

To support every student in the learning journey, the College uses equity funding to employ 12 primary-trained teachers who work in small groups with Year 10 students needing additional learning support.

“From Years 10 to 12, our focus is helping students to be on a pathway that gives them the best opportunities beyond school. Success looks different for every single student.”

Max Eldridge, Assistant Principal

Finding a consistent assessment solution

Each year, 200 to 250 students at the college choose between VCE, the VCE Vocational Major (VM) and the Victorian Pathways Certificate (VPC). A rigorous course counselling process at the end of Year 10 helps students and families understand what each option involves. To help inform these conversations, staff need a current, common picture of every student’s literacy and numeracy to sit alongside their own assessments.

"We needed a way to assess students consistently and understand where each of them is at. And to be able to assess new students coming into the school too, and ensure we're informed to support their learning."

Max Eldridge, Assistant Principal

For the College, the students' Year 9 NAPLAN results were too out-of-date by the time students reach course counselling, and the school’s practice GAT, sat under exam conditions and marked externally, returned only a score, and didn't provide the kind of insights the team needed around students' strengths and areas needing support.

Using CSPA to support every learner

The College chose the ACER Core Skills Profile for Adults (CSPA) to assess reading, writing and maths for students taking vocational certificates through its VET Pathways Program. For the past few years the College has been using it to assess Year 11 students, but from 2027, it will move down to Year 10, three to four weeks before course counselling so the results feed straight into pathway conversations.

“The CSPA gives us a really good, quick snapshot of what the students can and can’t do. Much as graduate teachers sit LANTITE, the CSPA shows staff what level each student is working at. We've found this really valuable and realised we want this a bit earlier while students are still in Year 10.”

Max Eldridge, Assistant Principal

After completing the CSPA, students receive a printed summary of their strengths and the skills to develop next, and teachers use the results alongside their own assessments to decide whether a student is ready for their preferred pathway or would benefit from targeted support first.

The results also flag LLN gaps ahead of the GAT, which VM and general VCE students sit. The school still runs a practice GAT in Year 11 to rehearse exam routines, but now relies on the CSPA to show where support is needed.

"A huge benefit for us is we know exactly what the assessment covers. There are no surprises, and we can review the data alongside our PAT Reading and PAT Maths data to understand every student and where they're at before the final years of schooling. We have been using the CSPA for some time now, to assess the LLN skills of our students taking up vocational certificates as part of our VET Pathways Program. It has also been very valuable for us to use as a screener and to identify gaps in student LLN skills leading up to the GAT.”

Max Eldridge, Assistant Principal, Hampton Park Secondary College

About the ACER Core Skills Profile for Adults (CSPA)

The CSPA is a suite of secure online assessments that measure language, literacy, numeracy and digital literacy (LLND) skills. It is primarily used as a pre-training assessment tool in vocational education and training (VET) to identify learners’ strengths and development needs.

For more information visit Core Skills Profile for Adults Core Skills Profile for Adults, download the CSPA information pack or to book a demonstration email cspa@acer.org.