Assessment in line for major shake-up

OP scores will be scrapped and a new form of external assessment introduced under a planned shake-up of senior assessment and tertiary entrance processes.

In their report “Redesigning the secondary-tertiary interface: Queensland Review of Senior Assessment and Tertiary Entrance”, Professor Geoff Masters and Dr. Gabrielle Matters of the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) recommended a number of major changes. These are summarised below.

School-based assessment

Individual student achievement would be directly comparable across teachers and schools. While schools would still design local school activities and assessment instruments for each senior subject, the Queensland Curriculum and Assessment Authority (QCAA) would identify four types of assessment activity, and also determine:

• the nature of the activity 
• the conditions under which the activity is to be completed 
• the marking schemes.

Expert subject groups (ESGs) comprising teachers, academics, and curriculum and assessment experts would be established. The QTU believes it is essential that practising teachers are part of these groups.

Teacher judgment is to be retained, with individual student achievement reported on a 60-point scale, combining marks from school assessment (three pieces, set and marked at a school level, marked out of 10 for a possible total of 30 marks, or 50 per cent of the overall mark) with marks from external assessment.

External assessment

An external assessment (EA) piece, to be written and marked by the QCAA, would be developed to account for 50 per cent of a student’s mark in senior “authority” subjects – it would be marked on a scale of 1-30 and would be sat at the same time in all Queensland schools.

This may not be appropriate for every subject. With dance and drama, for example, an activity based on direct observations or recordings may be more appropriate. In LOTE, it may be appropriate that there is no external assessment. These judgements will be made by ESGs. It may not be practicable – due to resourcing constraints – to develop EAs for all senior subjects, but priority would be given to large-enrolment subjects.

The EA item is not to be used to “scale” the school-based assessment.

Moderation

A three-stage process is envisaged.

Phase 1: "Endorsement” – checking and endorsement of school-generated assessment items and marking schemes.

Phase 2: "Confirmation” – achieved through a “moderation” process involving blind reassessments of student work coupled with spot audits by means of QCAA reassessment of samples of student work to check “consistent application of marking schema”. Any problem would lead to the re-marking of all student work in that subject at that school.

Phase 3: "Ratification” – prior to certification by the QCAA, each school’s results will be checked for anomalies and all four subject assessment pieces verified; a student appeals process will be developed.

Tertiary entrance

The OP system (including SAIs, OAIs, OPs and FPs) and the Queensland Core Skills Test would be abandoned, on the basis that universities and the Queensland Tertiary Admissions Centre are best suited to choose how student achievement should decide admission to courses. Universities will have to determine a transparent selection process. Tertiary entrance calculations would be excised from the QCAA’s role.

QTU position

The QTU believes that, if introduced, external assessments should account for 25 per cent of the overall subject result and that school-based assessment should form 75 per cent. Any changes to the senior assessment system should be introduced no earlier than 2018.

The cost of any new system is also a concern, as well as the impact on senior teacher workload. These teachers and their school leaders will need access to professional development and a substantial familiarisation period. A significant education and communication strategy will be required to ensure parents and students understand the changes before making senior subject selections.

The Union will be preparing a detailed response to the main proposals impacting on school operations, in particular the introduction of external assessments, the establishment of ESGs, the changes to the moderation processes, and the 1-10 marking scheme making up a student’s result.

Visit www.qtu.asn.au/pres24Sep2014 for more information.

Leah Mertens
Research Officer – Professional Issues

Queensland Teachers' Journal, Vol 119 No 8, 14 November 2014, p13