PRESS RELEASE

Janison deepens K-12 offering by acquiring Australia’s largest independent schools’ testing business

November 24, 2021

Janison has this week solidified its position as a leading provider of the nation’s K-12 schools assessment, with its acquisition of Academic Assessment Services (AAS), the largest independent schools’ assessment business in Australia.

Headquartered in Sydney, and founded by a former school teacher in 1974, AAS offers a premium suite of school assessments for Years 2-12 in Mathematics, Reading, Writing and Spelling and provides educational tests and testing services to a significant proportion of Australia’s 1,200 independent, Catholic and selective schools. It is the country’s largest commercial provider of independent schools assessment.

Its academic-qualified assessment experts include team members who hold a PhD in the area of assessment as well as seasoned data analysts and psychometricians. Over nearly five decades they have innovated services and tools that bolster standardised school testing and support students on their future academic and career decisions, including:

  • Placement and diagnostic testing – Years 2 to 10
  • Progress testing – Years 2 to 10
  • Scholarship testing – Years 3 to 11
  • GSAM – Gifted Student Ability Measure
  • a career exploration program which develops students’ career awareness beginning with the process of transition from Year 10 to Year 11 and 12.

The AAS online reporting system offers sophisticated, customisable support for schools and teachers to navigate assessment results data and transform it into classroom action. It student results into new dimensions, including giving teachers the ability to map student progress against their annual progress and predict individual student, group or cohort performance for the following year.

David Caspari, Janison CEO, said of the acquisition: “We couldn’t be more delighted to have AAS join the broader Janison family. AAS is an extraordinary business – in particular because of the people behind it and how they create extraordinary experiences for schools within the school environment, as well as incredible products and instruments.”

Robert Allwell, AAS founder and CEO Executive Director, said: “Having watched technology transform what we do, from back in the days of when the Commodore 64 was the latest equipment, to the wonders of what technology allows us to do now with student results, we’ve come a long way. We have a lot further that we want to go, we look forward to doing that with Janison.”