Assessment Information

O’Connor Catholic College Stage 6 Assessment Policy

Each student is required to undertake those tasks which are part of each subject's formal assessment program. In addition, students are required to apply themselves with diligence and sustained effort to other set tasks and experiences provided in the course by the school.

Each subject has a maximum of 3 formal tasks. Tasks are sequenced throughout the year and provide a variety of opportunities to measure student achievement.

Students and parents/guardians are given a complete assessment schedule before the commencement of the formal assessment program.

Teachers will give specific task information at least two weeks prior to the due date for that task. This will include details about the process and procedures involved in managing the tasks. Students will be expected to sign receipt of assessment tasks and teachers will sign when the task has been submitted. It is the student’s responsibility to ensure that all parts of exams are submitted.

All assessment tasks (this does not include in-class assessments) will be due on a Monday and are to be submitted by 9am on the due date to the front office.
Changes to the schedule are possible with appropriate warning and notification.

Each task will provide students with clear indications of how to succeed such as marking criteria or guidelines.

Students will receive specific feedback for each task to inform them of their progress in the learning continuum.

Relevant assessment results will form the basis for the academic reports. However, in deciding upon a Student Grade, teachers will consider all relevant learning data and the A-E Common Grade Scale for Year 11.

Students are required to apply themselves with diligence and sustained effort to all set tasks and experiences provided in the course and achieve some or all of the course outcomes. This is a NESA requirement. If a student's work and/or attendance becomes a concern, the Principal may determine that the course completion criteria has not been met. This can lead to an 'N' determination in the course concerned and ultimately put the student's Year 11 HSC at risk.

An official Warning Letter can be sent home to notify a student and his/her parents of any failure to meet requirements and allow for the situation to be rectified. Warning letters must be signed by the Principal and Assistant Principal.

After two N Determination warning letters, the Principal may award the student an N

(non-completion of course) determination, meaning that the course will not be recorded on the students record of achievement, thus placing their entire HSC program in jeopardy.

Absence from tasks or failure to hand in completed tasks on the due date and in appropriate format will be recorded as a non-attempt and a zero mark will be awarded. Students who know they will be absent on the due date must make prior arrangements with the subject teacher to negotiate the submission or completion of the task.

If a student has been found to have committed malpractice they will also receive a zero mark or only that part of the assessment considered to be the student’s work, will be graded. Students will be issued with an N Determination warning letter, placing their potential to progress to the HSC in jeopardy.

Students are entitled to apply for Special Consideration in case of Illness/Misadventure. The appeal must be made on the appropriate form and supported by independent evidence. If circumstances are known, students should apply for special consideration prior to the due date.

If students fail to submit a task or are absent on the due date and a Special Consideration form appeal is not lodged by students within a week of the original due date or is not approved, they will be issued with a N Determination warning letter.

If a student is granted Special Consideration, the following outcomes will apply:

arrangement for an alternate time for submission/in-class completion, after the scheduled due date;
an alternate task;
an estimate mark/Grade:
students may attempt the task but Special Consideration will apply.

Note: If the student is able to sit/submit the task when they have approved special consideration, their mark will examined at the end of the course for accuracy. This means their actual result will be compared with their other results in that course with that cohort to see if they have performed as well as expected. If their actual mark is below this estimated mark, their mark will be lifted to the estimated result. If their actual result is at or above the estimated result, the mark will be unchanged. In this way, Special Consideration is an insurance policy. See this document for details on how the estimated mark is determined. This is the accepted method used by schools around NSW.

Students have the right to appeal the procedure of a task, the administration of tasks, or whether the task conforms to the College’s Year 11 Assessment Policy. This appeal must be made on the Year 11 Assessment Task Appeal Form within ONE week of the task in question being handed back to the student and returned directly to the Assistant Principal.

The Principal and Assistant Principal comprise the Review Panel and have the right to co-opt other teachers onto this panel. The decision of this panel is final.

If students have had equal to 50% or more of their assessment tasks recorded as non-attempts in any course the Principal will certify that the course has NOT been satisfactorily completed and therefore a student cannot progress to the HSC.

ASSESSMENT POLICY AND PROCEDURES

Schools are required to provide written advice to students about the schools’ requirements for assessment including:

formal assessment schedules at the commencement of each Year 11 and Year 12 course;
each formal assessment task.

Formal Assessment Schedule

Prior to the commencement of a course, teachers develop an assessment schedule identifying formal opportunities for students to demonstrate their achievement at certain points in the course.

The purpose of a formal assessment schedule is to provide an overview of mandatory components and weightings, and the number, type, timing and weighting of each task.

When developing a formal assessment schedule, teachers:

use course-specific assessment and reporting materials to ensure the mandatory course components, weightings and task requirements are addressed;
provide opportunities for a range of task types that allow students to demonstrate what they know and can do in relation to course outcomes;
identify the appropriate timing of tasks in relation to the teaching and learning cycle, being mindful of the demands these tasks will place on students and teachers;
plan for assessment of a range of course outcomes, recognising that there is no requirement to formally assess all course content areas, topics or modules.

Measures of objectives and outcomes that address values and attitudes, or measures that reflect student conduct, are not to be included in formal school-based assessment.

There is no requirement for assessment schedules to include tasks with a greater weighting towards the end of the course.

Assessment

In Year 11 courses, the purpose of assessment includes:

Assisting student learning;
Evaluating and improving teaching and learning programs;
Providing evidence of satisfactory achievement and completion of course requirements;
Allow teachers and students to judge the LEVEL of performance;
Provide feedback material for reports;
Provide students with a model for mandated HSC assessment.

Monitoring Assessment Tasks

Formal assessment tasks assess student achievement at a single point in time. Some task types may require students to research or develop work over an extended period. For such tasks, teachers are encouraged to implement monitoring processes at key point(s) to provide informal feedback and to assist in determining student authorship. This may include reviewing draft work, questioning and discussion with student(s) or opportunities for student self-reflection.
While informal feedback does not contribute to grades or marks, it is a valid monitoring tool to assist teacher judgement about student achievement and to improve student learning. Schools make decisions regarding the provision of informal feedback to ensure equal opportunity for all students to receive feedback from teachers.

Components and Weightings

Components for assessment include concept and content knowledge, understanding and skills. The weightings of components correlate with their emphasis in the course

Teachers plan each assessment task to reflect one or more related components. This ensures that the outcomes are effectively assessed across the course in a manageable way through a variety of forms
The components and weightings indicated in a formal assessment schedule will provide a basis to decide the assessment task type. The task types used must be appropriate to the components of the course being assessed
The weighting of a component does not need to reflect the mark allocation assigned to a task. For example, an assessment task may be weighted in an assessment schedule at 20%. To provide a mark range that allows for discrimination between the performances of individual students, the maximum marks to be awarded for the task may be 30. This will be reflected in the marking guidelines. To maintain the task’s stated weighting, schools may consider using statistical methods when aggregating marks.

Formal Assessment Notification and Feedback

Schools are required to provide students with written advice about the formal assessment requirements for each course.

For every formal task, schools must provide:

adequate written notification in advance of the task (typically, two weeks);

details of the task, including:

task number;
task weighting;
timing;
outcomes assessed;
description of the nature of the task;
marking criteria;
feedback to be provided.

The task number, weighting, timing and outcomes must reflect the Assessment Schedule for a course.
The nature of the task should clearly describe for you the requirements and expectations of the task.
The Marking criteria for the task should outline for you what will be assessed in relation to the outcomes.
Feedback will be provided to students relating to their performance in the task that provides meaningful and useful information relative to the achievement of outcomes. Where appropriate, marking guidelines should be provided at the time of the written notification.

There will be opportunities for students to ask for feedback before the task is completed. This is the most meaningful feedback and students are encouraged to ask questions to help their understanding.

Preventing Malpractice

The honesty of students in completing assessment tasks, and of teachers and others in guiding students, underpins the integrity of the Higher School Certificate and school-based assessment processes.

It is important for us to establish sound processes for monitoring students’ work, including measures to prevent malpractice. We must act on any form of malpractice brought to our attention. We are responsible for providing you with an assessment policy that details expectations and information about malpractice. You (as the student) are responsible for ensuring that you are aware of assessment expectations.

What is Malpractice?

Malpractice is dishonest behaviour by a student that gives them an unfair advantage over others. It includes, but is not limited to:

copying someone else’s work in part or in whole, and presenting it as your own;
using material directly from print or digital mediums without reference to the source;
building on the ideas of another person without reference to the source;
plagiarism such as buying, stealing or borrowing another person’s work and presenting it as your own;
submitting work that another person, such as a parent, tutor or subject expert, has contributed to substantially;
using words, ideas, designs or the work of others in practical and performance tasks without appropriate acknowledgement;
paying someone to write or prepare material;
breaching school examination rules;
cheating in an in-class assessment/examination, including having access to mobile devices;
using non-approved aids during an assessment task;
providing false explanations to explain work not handed in by the due date;

assisting another student to engage in malpractice.

Deliberate acts of malpractice may occur if a student feels that their own efforts may be inadequate, or if they feel unable to cope with the consequences of poor performance.

Unintentional acts of malpractice may occur if students are poorly prepared or do not know how to acknowledge the contribution made by others to their work.

Malpractice in school-based assessment is a serious offence. It distorts legitimate measures of a student’s achievements by advantaging the individual, and disadvantaging other students. Malpractice may affect the order in which HSC students are ranked and distort the moderation process applied to internal assessment marks. Malpractice in any form, including plagiarism, is unacceptable. Schools register with NESA via Schools Online, all instances where a student was found to have engaged in malpractice in a Year 12 school-based assessment task, the subject concerned, the nature of the offence and the penalty applied.

Awarding Grades in Year 11

Schools are responsible for awarding a grade for each student who completes a Year 11 course (except Life Skills and VET courses) to represent their achievement.

Teachers make professional, on-balance judgements about a student’s performance in relation to the Common Grade Scale for Year 11 courses. Teachers determine which grade description best matches the standards their students have demonstrated by the end of the course.
There are many suitable methods for awarding grades that schools may consider appropriate in supporting teacher judgements about student achievement.
Teachers are required to ensure that the grades awarded are consistent with published standards. This means that the grade a student receives in one school can be compared to the same grade anywhere in NSW. To ensure judgements are consistent with state-wide standards, teachers compare their student work with work samples on the NESA website that are aligned to the A to E common grade scale. The grade awarded is reported on the student’s Record of Student Achievement (RoSA), a cumulative credential that allows students to accumulate their academic results until they leave school.

RoSA

The RoSA shows a student’s comprehensive record of academic achievement, which includes:

completed courses and the awarded grade;
courses a student has participated in but did not complete before leaving school;
date the student left school.

RoSA - Appeals against grades for Stage 6 Course

Students wishing to appeal against the grade(s) in any subject awarded to them by the school should submit a written appeal, together with evidence, to their principal.

In order to be successful in such appeals, students would need to substantiate that the grade(s) awarded in the course(s) was inconsistent with the progressive reporting from the school.

If the appeal is upheld, the principal should send notification of the new grade(s) to NESA.

Where possible, all reviews of the grade(s) awarded in any subject should be resolved within the school. However, provision has been made for subsequent appeals to NESA. NESA will consider only whether: the school review process was adequate for determining whether the procedures used by the school for determining the grade(s) conform with NESA advice and the school’s policy regarding the grading of student achievement; the conduct of the school review was proper in all respects.

Since the appeal is directed to the progressive reporting by the school, NESA will not revise individual tasks or test marks. If the appeal is upheld, NESA will refer the matter back to the school for a further review

Remember -

To be eligible for the HSC you must have:

At least 12 units of study in Year 11 and 10 units in Year 12;
At least 6 units of Board Developed Courses;
At least 2 units of English;
At least 3 courses of 2 unit value;
At least 4 subjects;
No more than 7 units of Science.

To be eligible for an ATAR you must meet the requirements for the HSC as well as:

At least 10 Board Developed units
Only 1 category B subject in those 10 Board Developed units.

If you are unsure whether you require an ATAR you MUST check with school staff.

SATISFACTORY COURSE COMPLETION

Students must successfully complete a minimum of 12 units of NESA Year 11 courses in order to qualify for the HSC credential. Because the HSC is a state-wide, external educational award, rules and procedures set by NESA must be adhered to.

In attaining this credential, all students, regardless of academic ability, MUST provide sufficient evidence that they met the following three criteria throughout their program of study:

Followed the course developed or endorsed by the Board;
Applied themselves with diligence and sustained effort to the set tasks and experiences provided in the course by the school;
Achieved some or all of the outcomes.

This simply means that in order to complete the Year 11 course at a satisfactory level, students must make a genuine effort throughout the year and commit fully to all aspects of their study program.

Non-Completion

If a student appears to be at risk of not meeting the above requirements, a formal warning must be given, and parents/guardians must be advised.

This warning is given in time for the problem to be corrected. A student who fails to respond positively to the warning can be issued with an ‘N’ determination by the Principal. Students who have received an ‘N’ determination have a right of appeal.

‘N’ Determination

If students don’t complete a course’s requirements they will receive an ‘N’ determination.

Students are warned via a letter from their school if it looks like they might receive an ‘N’ determination. This aims to give the student time to complete the course requirements and rectify the problem.

If a student receives an ‘N’ determination in a mandatory curriculum requirement course, they won’t be eligible for the RoSA. If they leave school, they will receive a Transcript of Study that will list the mandatory course(s) that received an ‘N’ determination.

If a student is given an ‘N’ determination in a non-mandatory course, the course will not appear on their RoSA or Transcript of Study.

Life Skills

Students undertaking a Stage 6 Life Skills course will be assessed on their achievement of the Life Skills outcomes identified in the planning process for the individual student.

Students can demonstrate achievement of outcomes in a number of ways, and across a range of environments including the school, community and workplace. Assessment should reflect the student’s ability to generalise the knowledge and skills to a range of adult environments.

The content listed with each outcome provides examples of assessable activities on which teacher judgement will be based. Students do not need to complete all of the associated content to demonstrate achievement of a Life Skills outcome.

Evidence of achievement of outcomes can be gathered through ongoing assessment for learning and assessment of learning at particular points in the course of study.

Students entered for Life Skills courses may achieve the designated outcomes independently or with support.

Special Consideration Protocols Year 11 and 12

Special Consideration is available for students if they have suffered an illness or misadventure prior to or at the time of the assessment. Special Consideration may also be available to students if for some reason they know they will be absent on the due date of the assessment.

Only the Assistant Principal or the Principal can process a Special Consideration application
Our Assessment policy contains the following clause; If students fail to submit a task or are absent on the due date and a Special Consideration form application is not lodged by students within a week of the original due date or is not approved, they will be issued with a N-Determination warning letter. Students will be expected to complete all course work provided.
To apply for a Special Consideration a student must:

Advise the class teacher of the need for special consideration
See/notify the Assistant Principal that they wish to apply for Special Consideration and obtain a form
obtain and provide independent evidence to validate the Special Consideration application: ie Medical Certificate, evidence of travel, work placement forms etc. This must be provided at the time of submitting the form.
Provide notification from a parent/Guardian in the event of an unknown circumstance such as a death in the family, as early as possible

Once a Special Consideration application has been received the Assistant Principal will;

Validate the evidence supplied
Communicate with the subject teacher/s and student if the application has been successful
Make a recommendation as to the outcome of the application in consultation with the subject teacher/s and when necessary the student
Make copies of the completed application for the subject teacher and student and maintain a record of all applications for the academic Year
Keep a database of Special Consideration for Years 11 and 12 and provide information for the purpose of issuing RoSA grades for Year 11 and the final assessment mark and rank for Year 12

For school based exams the following will apply:

a) In the case of exams and in-class assessment the students will complete them at the next convenient date determined by the Assistant Principal, subject teacher and student/parents. If a student is absent from a school based exam/assessment the student will complete it after the class group rather than before. The form is to be used for students that are ill during an exam/in-class assessment if they tell the supervising teacher immediately and evidence can be supported by the supervising teacher.

Disability Provisions

The Disability Discrimination Act 1992 (Cth) and the Disability Standards for Education (2005) require NESA to ensure that students with a disability are able to access and respond to an examination. NESA may approve disability provisions for the Higher School Certificate examinations if a student has a permanent or temporary disability that would, in a normal examination situation, prevent him or her from:

1. reading the examination questions; and/or

2. communicating his or her responses.

Principals have the authority to decide on, and to implement, disability provisions for school-based assessment tasks including examinations.

What are disability provisions?

Disability provisions are granted to provide students who have disability needs with practical support. Students' disability needs may include learning, medical, vision or hearing difficulties.

Examples of provisions may include: Braille or large print papers, use of a writer and/or reader, use of an interpreter, extension of test time, rest breaks, use of a personal computer, separate exam supervision, individual supervision, and permission to take medication.

Can disability provisions be implemented for students in school-based assessments?

Yes, Principals have the authority to decide on and to implement disability provisions for school-based assessment tasks including examinations.

Teachers may need to make adjustments to teaching, learning and assessment practices for some students with special education needs, so that they are able to demonstrate what they know and can do in relation to syllabus outcomes and content. The types of adjustments made will vary based on the needs of individual students.

These may be:

adjustments to the assessment process, e.g. additional time, rest breaks, quieter conditions, or the use of a reader and/or scribe or specific technology
adjustments to assessment activities, e.g. rephrasing questions or using simplified language, fewer questions or alternative formats for questions
alternative formats for responses, e.g. written point form or notes, scaffolded structured responses, short objective questions or multimedia presentations.