Report on the Nationally Consistent Collection of DATA (NCCD) process in NSW and ACT schools
The Independent Education Union of Australia, NSW/ACT Branch, has recently concluded a widespread survey into the effects of the Nationally Consistent Collection of DATA (NCCD) process on teacher workloads, and the delivery of support to students and classroom teachers in schools.
The Report on the Nationally Consistent Collection of DATA (NCCD) process in NSW and ACT schools is the result of that survey.
The Report identified significant issues regarding:
- Work intensification
- Inadequate staffing and release time
- Negative impact on support for students
- Duplication of data requirements
- Deficiencies in data collection platforms and Learning Management Systems
Recommendations
The IEU’s Report makes the following recommendations:
- Measures should be taken to staff the NCCD process appropriately at the school level.
- Staffing ratios need to be sufficient to allow the core role of learning support to take place.
- Release time should take into account the workload impact of the NCCD process, in addition to regular programming and assessment responsibilities.
- Exemplars to be provided and published on the NCCD website to provide clarity around the evidence template requirements and avoid layering of expectations.
- Schools and systems to review documentation and processes to ensure that they are not exceeding the requirements of the NCCD.
- The school’s information or learning management system would ordinarily contain the necessary student information for the NCCD, and other purposes, for both classroom teachers and learning support staff. Any requirements to provide additional documentation, eg personalised planning tools, are superfluous and contribute to unnecessary workloads.
- Eliminate or substantially reduce the requirements associated with eternal reporting on students in the quality differentiated teaching practice (QDTP) category.
- Evidentiary requirements should be streamlined across all categories. In particular, the annual and recurring evidentiary requirements for students likely to remain in the in the NCCD Extensive category should be subject to review.
- Refine the evidence management process and improve the efficiency of the digital platform in order to reduce the need for ongoing and extensive PD related to the NCCD. This should allow learning support staff to concentrate on PD that relates to their core role of supporting students with disability.
- Ensure that any necessary system or version upgrades to the digital platform are minimal and are enacted prior to the point when users will be expected to engage with the platform. The capacity to allow the bulk uploading of data should be facilitated.
Where to now?
Discussions with employer groups and government agencies have already commenced. The NCCD Presentation PDF (link) provides details as to the progress of those discussions.
The full version of the Report can be found at this link.
If you have questions about the report, please feel free to contact either Veronica Yewdall or Pat Devery.
