• Home
• Curriculum
• Recognition Register

ACARA’s charter includes the requirement for a ‘nationally agreed approach and criteria for determining how well-established alternative curriculum frameworks meet the requirements of the national curriculum’.

 

ACARA administers a process to assess the extent to which well-established alternative curriculum frameworks can deliver comparable educational outcomes for students as for those who are taught the Australian Curriculum. The assessment process is undertaken by a Recognition Committee, with the results published on ACARA’s Recognition Register.

 

ACARA’s recognition process does not replace state and territory school registration processes, which continue to apply in addition to ACARA's process.

 

This Recognition Register relates only to specified versions of well-established alternative national curriculum framework which have been compared to the Australian Curriculum (currently version 2.0).  Version 2.0 of the Australian Curriculum went live on 14 October 2011 (www.australiancurriculum.edu.au) and provides curriculum for Foundation to Year 10 English, Mathematics, Science and History.

 

The Recognition Register provides a summary statement for each curriculum framework that has been submitted for assessment, with additional information available about each application.

 

General outcomes for organisations that have submitted alternative national curriculum frameworks for assessment of comparability with the Australian Curriculum are:

 

The International Baccalaureate PYP and MYP curriculum frameworks document the organisation of knowledge and skills in a conceptual framework. The Recognition Committee acknowledges the difference between this approach and that taken for the Australian Curriculum and considers that these IB frameworks allow students to achieve comparable learning outcomes in English, Mathematics, Science and History by the end of Year 10, given the assumption that school programming and delivery of the PYP and MYP will address the Australian Curriculum content.

 

For more information please click here.

 

 

Noting that different approaches to learning are involved, the Recognition Committee considers that the Australian Steiner Curriculum Framework allows for broadly comparable educational outcomes for students by the end of Year 10 in relation to the Melbourne Declaration, the Shape of the Australian Curriculum v3 paper, the Australian Curriculum: English, the Australian Curriculum: Mathematics, the Australian Curriculum: History and most aspects of the Australian Curriculum: Science.

 

The Australian Steiner Curriculum Framework: Science allows for comparable educational outcomes for students by the end of Year 10 in most aspects of the Australian Curriculum: Science. There are three areas that are not comparable namely: aspects of the transmission of heritable characteristics, DNA and genes; the atomic structure and properties and elements; and the Big Bang Theory. It is the case that these aspects are included in the Steiner senior secondary curriculum.

 

At earlier comparison points, the sequencing of some content and achievement in each learning area varies between the Australian Steiner Framework and the Australian Curriculum (for example, aspects of digital information and communications technologies). If students transition to other school systems at these points there may be differences in aspects of their learning.

 

For more information please click here.

 

 

Noting that different approaches to learning are involved, the Recognition Committee considers that the Montessori National Curriculum Framework allows for broadly comparable educational outcomes in English, Mathematics, Science and History by the end of Year 10.
 

The Montessori National Curriculum Framework does not always address all of the content and achievement standards in exactly the same order or detail. The Montessori National Curriculum Framework does document ‘Activities’. Where the activities listed in the curriculum are fully delivered by a school, there would be general comparability with Australian Curriculum.

 

Because the content of the Montessori curriculum is addressed at different stages and in different contexts in comparison to the Australian Curriculum, a depth of understanding is built over time. School programs will need to be checked to ensure coverage of all aspects of the Australian Curriculum.

For more information please click here.

 

 

To learn more about the recognition of alternative curriculum as it applies in each state or territory school registration process, please click on the relevant hyperlink below, or contact the local School Registration Authority.

 

 

 

For further inquiries about the ACARA Recognition Process, please email Wendy Engliss, Senior Manager Implementation Coordination: wendy.engliss@acara.edu.au  or phone: +61 2 8098 3222.