: Introduction

The assessments included eight tasks which asked the students to find and use particular information in reference books (children's encyclopedia, dictionaries, a specialised reference book, a telephone book, and a 110 page city visitors guide).

One task was identical for both year 4 and year 8. The other tasks were attempted only by year 4 or year 8 students. Four tasks, including the task given to both year levels, have been selected as link tasks (to be used again in the year 2001) and therefore are not described in detail here. The other tasks are released tasks for which full details are given.

The chapter presents the assessment tasks in the following order:

Both year 4 and year 8 students achieved substantial success in these tasks. On the task components common to both year levels, about 30 percent more year 8 students than year 4 students achieved success. Students had least success with task components which required some ingenuity, flexibility or persistence to find appropriate search keywords. In most cases, they also performed distinctly less well when asked to interpret or summarise information than when asked just to locate the information.