P12 assessment policy

Students in Queensland benefit from a formal program of standards-based assessment. The

major purposes of an assessment program are to improve teaching, help students achieve the
highest standards they can within their own capabilities, and provide meaningful reports to
parents/carers on students achievements.
This document outlines the Queensland Curriculum and Assessment Authoritys (QCAA) P12
assessment policy and guides assessment practices. The policy is consistent with the national
principles of assessment developed and endorsed by the Australasian Curriculum, Assessment
and Certification Authorities. 1
The major audiences for this document are members of the QCAAs committees and panels, staff
of the QCAA and teachers who work in partnership with the QCAA to assess and report on
students achievements.

The QCAAs functions

The QCAA was established by the Education (Queensland Curriculum and Assessment
Authority) Act 2014 (the Act), which has the following objects:

to help schools to achieve quality learning outcomes for their students

to help approved providers of education and care services to achieve quality learning
outcomes for children who attend the services

to provide accurate and informative records of student achievement, including through the
production of certificates of achievements and statements of results

to maintain public confidence in certificates of achievement and statements of results

developed and administered by the authority.

develops and approves Years 112 syllabuses and curriculum guidelines for the kindergarten
and early years of schooling

develops and revises documents to support the implementation of approved syllabuses,

guidelines and the Australian Curriculum

implements professional development to teachers to implement approved syllabuses,

guidelines and the Australian Curriculum

develops, marks and administers tests, and reports students test results

decides assessment procedures

implements moderation procedures to ensure comparability of teachers judgments in

deciding results

issues certificates of achievement

exercises delegated authority in vocational education and training (VET) matters

provides students with Overall Positions (OPs) and Field Positions (FPs) as a basis for
tertiary entrance (and related tertiary entrance functions).

Australasian Curriculum, Assessment and Certification Authorities (ACACA) 2012, Principles of Assessment F12: An ACACA
paper.

r2607 Rebranded July 2014

To achieve these objects, the QCAA:

The QCAAs assessment responsibilities and

commitments
The QCAA has a range of responsibilities in a P12 assessment program: 2
Early Learning Record in the Preparatory Year of schooling
P10 Literacy and Numeracy Indicators and Monitoring maps
National Assessment Program Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) testing in Years 3, 5, 7
and 9
examples of high-quality assessment instruments and annotated samples of student work for
Australian Curriculum learning areas P10 and Authority subjects in Years 1112
externally moderated school-based assessment for Authority subjects in Years 1112
quality-assured school-based assessment for Authority-registered subjects in Years 1112
assessment in Workplace, Community and Self-directed Learning Projects in Years 1012
competency-based assessment in VET in Years 1012
external examinations in selected subjects for some students in Year 12
Queensland Core Skills (QCS) Test in Year 12
Overall Positions and Field Positions for tertiary entrance
the Queensland Certificate of Education (QCE), Senior Statement, Tertiary Entrance
Statement and the Queensland Certificate of Individual Achievement (QCIA).
Assessment is the purposeful and systematic collection of information about students
achievements. All Queensland students deserve to benefit from high-quality assessment
programs.
In school-based assessment, teachers are responsible for designing assessment programs and
making judgments about the standards achieved by their students.
The QCAA is committed to supporting teachers by providing them with exemplar assessment
instruments that are accompanied by annotated samples of student responses, and engaging
teachers in social moderation of their assessment practices and their judgments of the standards
achieved by their students.
When school-based assessment is complemented by standardised assessment programs
designed to measure the health of a system, the QCAA supports the stance that such programs
are best conducted as periodic sample tests, and results are reported at system level only.
Examples of such tests are the triennial tests in Science Literacy conducted under the National
Assessment Program and the Program for International Student Assessment.
The QCAA promotes equitable outcomes for students, excellence in curriculum and assessment,
and high-quality guidelines, syllabuses and assessment programs. The QCAA has a proactive
stance on the appropriate representation of different kinds of cultural knowledge and experience
(especially Indigenous knowledge and experience) in its syllabuses and assessment practices.

Syllabuses, guidelines and assessment

Syllabuses and guidelines approved by the QCAA include a section on assessment to guide
school and classroom assessment practices in the:
2

This program is further described in the document, P12 assessment overview.

P12 assessment policy

Queensland Curriculum & Assessment Authority

July 2014
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 early phase, which focuses on proficiency in early literacy and numeracy

middle phase, which focuses on engagement with culturally and scientifically significant
knowledge
senior phase, which focuses on pathways with the goal of preparing students for further
education, training, work and active citizenship.
The Act makes clear links between syllabuses 3 and assessment. The QCAA-approved
syllabuses for the senior phase of learning prescribe the subject content and achievement
standards for Queensland schools. QCAA-approved guidelines for the early and middle phases
prescribe the Australian Curriculum learning area or subject content and achievement standards
for Queensland schools.
Learning area or subject content is what students are expected to know and do by the end of key
junctures of schooling (general objectives and subject matter).
Achievement standards in senior syllabuses are fixed reference points used to describe how well
students have achieved the general objectives or subject matter. The description of achievement
standards are typically derived by groups of teachers and subject experts describing the actual
differences in examples of student work.
The Australian Curriculum achievement standards describe the depth of conceptual
understanding, the sophistication of skills and the ability to apply essential knowledge that
students typically demonstrate at the end of each teaching and learning year. In QCAA-approved
guidelines, the Australian Curriculum achievement standard is elaborated from A to E (or
equivalent) to provide a basis for judging how well students have demonstrated what they know
and can do.
Achievement standards are described in the current senior syllabuses, the Year 10 Guidelines,
the P10 Australian Curriculum in Queensland, the Queensland Essential Learnings and
Standards and the Early Years Curriculum Guidelines.

Purposes of assessment
The purposes of assessment are to:
promote, assist and improve learning
inform programs of teaching and learning
provide information for those people students, parents, teachers who need to know
about the progress and achievements of individual students to help them achieve to the best
of their abilities
provide information for the issuing of certificates of achievement
provide information to those people who need to know how well groups of students are
achieving (school authorities, the State Minister for Education, Training and Employment, the
Federal Minister for Education).
It is common practice to label assessment as being formative, diagnostic or summative according
to the major purpose of the assessment.
The major purpose of formative assessment is to help students attain higher levels of
performance. The major purpose of diagnostic assessment is to determine the nature of students
learning and then provide the appropriate feedback or intervention. The major purpose of
3

The definition of syllabus in the Act is that a syllabus includes a statement of content, standards of achievement and
assessment processes.

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Queensland Curriculum & Assessment Authority

July 2014
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summative assessment is to indicate the standards achieved by students at particular points in

their schooling. It is geared towards reporting and certification.

Assessment instruments
High-quality assessment instruments:
have construct validity (the instruments actually assess what they were designed to assess)
have face validity (they appear to assess what you believe they are intended to assess)
give students clear and definite instructions
are written in language suited to the reading capabilities of the students for whom the
instruments are intended
are clearly presented through appropriate choice of layout, cues, visual design, format and
choice of words
are used under clear, definite and specified conditions that are appropriate for all the students
whose achievements are being assessed
have clear criteria for making judgments about achievements (these criteria are shared with
students before they are assessed)
are used under conditions that allow optimal participation for all
are inclusive of students diverse backgrounds
allow students to demonstrate the breadth and depth of their achievements
only involve the reproduction of gender, socioeconomic, ethnic or other cultural stereotypes if
careful consideration has determined that such reproduction is necessary.

Principles of assessment and reporting

The following ten principles guide the QCAAs assessment practices.4
Assessment is clearly linked to making judgments about how well students have achieved the
aims or general objectives within the scope of the content/subject matter of syllabuses,
guidelines and curriculum resources.
Assessment is an integral part of the teaching and learning process.
Assessment is a key element of the professional practice of teachers.
Informed teacher judgment is at the heart of good assessment practice.
Assessment practices are responsive to the diverse needs of students and are underpinned
by equity principles. 5
Assessment judgments are standards-based.
In school-based assessment where assessment is continuous, all assessment is formative.
4

The QCAAs six principles for exit assessment are explained in syllabuses for authority subjects and study area specifications
for authority-registered subjects. Please note that study area specifications are being replaced by subject area syllabuses
from 2015.

See QCAAs Equity statement and Policy on special provisions for school-based assessments in authority and authorityregistered subjects in the AZ of Moderation. The policy is based on the ACACA Guidelines for Assessment Quality and
Equity (1995).

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July 2014
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 In school-based assessment, summative judgments about standards are made by teachers at

key junctures of schooling for reporting purposes.
Reports of student achievement are defensible and comparable, based on sound evidence
and shared understanding of aims or general objectives and the scope of content/subject
matter in syllabuses, guidelines and curriculum resources.
Reports of student achievement are readily interpreted by their intended audiences.

Reporting the results of assessment

Where assessment involves the public reporting of results, there needs to be:
moderation of assessment instruments that have the capability to assess student achievement
of aims or syllabus general objectives and are within the scope of the content/subject matter
specifications of the syllabuses or guidelines
judgments of students achievements with reference to articulated standards
records of the standards attained by students
feedback to teachers and syllabus writers
moderation of teacher judgments of standards.

Comparability of standards
When the results of assessment are to be reported publicly, the QCAA advocates social
moderation of teachers judgments as being the best system of ensuring comparability of
standards across Queensland.
In a system of social moderation, groups of teachers meet formally to assure the quality of
assessment instruments and ensure that judgments of standards are comparable from school to
school through a process of negotiation.
For social moderation to work effectively, the following are required:
syllabuses or guidelines that clearly describe the content and achievement standards
contextualised exemplar assessment instruments
samples of student work annotated to explain how they represent different standards
consensus through teacher discussions on the quality of the assessment instruments and the
standards of student work
professional development of teachers
an organisational infrastructure encompassing the QCAA and schools to ensure the above
takes place.

P12 assessment policy

Queensland Curriculum & Assessment Authority

July 2014
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The QCAAs assessment capability

The QCAA continually improves its assessment capability and practices by:
regularly reviewing its methods, materials and the overall results of assessment
providing regular professional development to QCAA staff who work in the areas of teaching,
learning, assessment and reporting
engaging assessment experts to assist in the professional development of QCAA staff
training members of moderation panels, people who set the senior external examinations, test
constructors, and test and examination markers
ensuring consistent assessment nomenclature across the three phases of learning
actively engaging in state, national and international discussions and debates about
assessment issues.

Teachers assessment capabilities

The QCAA supports teachers from Kindergarten to Year 12 to develop the best possible
assessment practices by providing:
professional development for teachers who are required to assess students for QCAAs
reporting purposes 6
professional development of teachers to be able to construct high-quality assessment
instruments, make defensible judgments of students achievements and use test data and
other assessment information for formative purposes
models of assessment practices that can be accessed easily by all teachers
avenues for teachers to engage in professional discussions about assessment issues.

The QCAAs reporting purposes are summarised in the document, P12 Assessment Overview.

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Reference list
Assessment Reform Group 2002, Assessment for Learning: 10 Principles, UK.
Australasian Curriculum, Assessment and Certification Authorities (ACACA) 1995, Guidelines for
Assessment Quality and Equity.
2012, Principles of Assessment F12: An ACACA paper.
Council for the Australian Federation 2007, Federalist Paper 2: The Future of Schooling in Australia
(revised edition), Australia.
Education (Queensland Curriculum and Assessment Authority) Act 2014 (legislation).
Luke, A & Weir, K 2008, Development of a set of principles to guide a P12 syllabus framework,
Queensland Studies Authority (QSA), Brisbane.
McMenimen, M 1986, Formative and Summative Assessment A complementary approach, Discussion
Paper 6, Board of Secondary School Studies, Brisbane.
Matters, G 2004, Growing an Assessment Culture: Issue No 3 Designing Quality Assessment Tasks.
Access Education, Department of Education, Training and the Arts, Brisbane.
2004, Growing an Assessment Culture: Issue No 4 Determining criteria and writing standards
descriptors Access Education, Department of Education, Training and the Arts, Brisbane.
2006, Assessment approaches in Queensland senior science syllabuses, QSA, Brisbane.
2007, Taking a position on standards: Paper prepared for the QCAR project, QSA, Brisbane.
Maxwell, GS 2002, Are core learning outcomes standards? Queensland School Curriculum Council,
Brisbane.
Pitman, JA, OBrien, JE & McCollow, JE 1999, High-Quality Assessment: We are what we believe and do,
Paper presented at the IAEA Conference, Bled, Slovenia, May.
Radford, W (chairman) 1970, Public Examinations for Queensland Secondary School Students,
Queensland Department of Education, Brisbane.
Sadler, DR 1986, ROSBAs Family Connections, Discussion Paper 1, Board of Secondary School Studies,
Brisbane.
1986, The Case for Explicitly Stated Standards, Discussion Paper 2, Board of Secondary School
Studies, Brisbane.
1986, General Principles for Organising Criteria, Discussion Paper 9, Board of Secondary School
Studies, Brisbane.
1986, Defining and Achieving Comparability of Assessment, Discussion Paper 12, Board of Secondary
School Studies, Brisbane.
1987, Specifying and promulgating achievement standards, Oxford Review of Education, 13, pp. 191
209.
2005, Interpretation of criteria-based assessment and grading in higher education, Assessment and
Evaluation in Higher Education, Vol 30 No. 2, April, pp. 17594.
Scott, E (chairman) 1978, A review of school-based assessment in Queensland secondary schools, Board
of Secondary School Studies, Brisbane.
Varghese, J 2002, The report of the assessment and reporting taskforce, Education Queensland,
Queensland Government.

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July 2014
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