© VCAA
2015 General administrative information
for the audit and review of school-based
assessment for all VCE studies Units 3
and 4
The information contained in this document should be read in conjunction with the following materials made available on the VCAA website:
Special Edition December 2011 VCAA Bulletin VCE, VCAL and VET:
www.vcaa.vic.edu.au/Documents/bulletin/DecSpecBull.pdf
VCE and VCAL Administrative Handbook 2015:
www.vcaa.vic.edu.au/Pages/schooladmin/handbook/2015/index.aspx
VCAA Bulletins and Notices to Schools:
www.vcaa.vic.edu.au/Pages/correspondence/index.aspx
VCE Assessment Handbooks and VCE Assessment Reports:
www.vcaa.vic.edu.au/Pages/vce/studies/index.aspx
VASS Guidelines to Data Entry of School Assessments booklet (download in VASS) specific study information available on the individual study pages of the VCAA website.
Additionally, this document contains information on School-assessed Tasks and general information about school-based assessment.
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Audit and review of School-based assessment for
all studies at VCE Units 3 and 4
The VCE School-based Assessment Audit program incorporates a review of School-assessed Coursework, Externally-assessed Tasks and School-assessed Tasks (SATs).
As the assessment tasks are integral both to the determination of satisfactory completion of the VCE units and to the determination of scores that are used to calculate the study score, it is essential that students are given appropriate assessment activities.
Program description
The school-based assessment audit and review program is carried out in four stages – two stages for each of Unit 3 and Unit 4. Teachers of VCE Arts and Technology studies should note that there are specific requirements for the School-assessed Tasks.
Stage 1 - Unit 3 Initial audit submission
All VCE providers will be audited for at least one VCE study each year. In 2015, providers will be notified of requirements for Stage 1 of the School-based assessment Audit program during the week beginning Monday 2 March 2015.
Each provider will be required to complete a study specific online questionnaire supplying information about their planned assessment program. It will not be necessary to provide actual assessment tasks, work samples or marking schemes in Stage 1.
Online submissions for Stage 1: Unit 3 are due by Friday 20 March 2015 and are considered by the VCE State Reviewer in conjunction with the relevant VCAA Curriculum Manager. Providers are then notified of one of the following three outcomes:
Submission meets requirements and no further action is required
This means that no immediate action is required. Some evidence may be requested in Stage 2.
Further evidence is required to ensure VCAA requirements are being met
This means that the submission is incomplete or indicates that there is an issue requiring follow-up by the VCAA. Providers will be contacted and further evidence will be requested in Stage 2. Further evidence may be required in the form of, for example, assessment tasks, details of assessment criteria or marking schemes, evidence of internal moderation practice or samples of student work.
Immediate follow up with the Curriculum Manager required
This means that there are significant issues that require the teacher/s to make contact with the relevant VCAA Curriculum Manager at their earliest convenience.
Stage 2 - Unit 3 Evidence Collection
In Stage 2, providers may be requested to supply evidence of their assessment design and practice for one or more of the audited studies. Further evidence requests will vary between providers, depending on the information provided in the Stage 1 online submission.
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All evidence must be submitted using the online form as provided in the notification email. Submission of further evidence cannot exceed 2MB therefore it is encouraged that all documents are converted to PDF format. The VCAA can provide advice on how to convert documents to PDFs.
The requested evidence for Unit 3 must be submitted to the VCAA by Friday 22 May 2015.
Following consideration of evidence, all providers are notified whether the evidence meets requirements or if the evidence does not meet requirements. If the evidence does not meet requirements, further discussions will take place between the VCAA and the study teacher.
Stage 3 - Unit 4 Initial audit submission
VCE providers identified for Unit 4 audit will be notified on Monday 22 June 2015 and will complete an online questionnaire supplying information about their planned assessment program, specifically for Unit 4. The online questionnaire closes on Friday 17 July 2015.
Providers may have studies selected for audit in Stage 3 that were not selected in Stage 1. Some providers may have been carried over from the Unit 3 audit as a consequence of their audit outcome.
As for Stages 1 and 2 in Unit 3, the online submissions will be considered and feedback will be provided to schools in the same manner.
Stage 4 - Unit 4 Evidence Collection
VCE providers may be requested to supply evidence of their assessment design and practice for one or more of the audited studies, similar to the Stage 1 Audit submission. The requested evidence must be submitted to the VCAA by Friday 11 September 2015.
Where the study includes a School-assessed Task, preliminary student work may be requested. This may be followed up at a later date by a request for completed Authentication Records, and for the Technology studies, by a request for copies of the Teacher Additional Comment forms.
Teacher Additional Comment Sheet for Technology Studies
Technology teachers are reminded that they should complete the Teacher Additional Comment Sheet as provided in study-specific advice on School-based Assessment (also available from VASS). The form may be collected by the VCAA as part of the school-based assessment audit and review program.
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General information on school-based assessment
Authentication
Reference: VCE and VCAL Administrative Handbook 2015, pages 81-83.
Students must ensure that all unacknowledged work submitted for assessment is genuinely their own.
For School-assessed Coursework undertaken outside class time, teachers must monitor and record each student’s progress through to completion. This requires regular sightings of the work by the teacher and the keeping of records in the Authentication Record for School-assessed
Coursework form.
For School-assessed Tasks, teachers must monitor and record in the Authentication Record for
School-assessed Task (study name) form each student’s development of work, from planning
and drafting through to completion. This requires regular sightings and records of the work by the teacher.
Observations of individual work done in class should be recorded. The teacher and student must sign each recorded observation. Authentication records should be retained by the school and made available on request to the VCAA. Forms may be collected by the VCAA as part of the school-assessment audit and review program.
The authentication requirement also applies to the Externally-assessed Task for VCE Music Style and Composition and for VCE Extended Investigation.
Authentication forms are available as VASS downloads.
The VCE and VCAL Administrative Handbook 2015 provides strategies for avoiding authentication
issues.
Management of entry of school assessments into VASS
Schools will have their own data management processes that will ensure the timely collection and entry of scores for school assessments. Teachers will need to provide precise information for VASS input – the study, the unit of coursework, the outcome-related coursework assessment and/or the School-assessed Task (if applicable) activity undertaken by each student and the score. Input sheets for each class of students and for each study can be printed from VASS.
Advice is available in 2015 VASS Guidelines to Data Entry of School Assessments booklet (available as a download from VASS).
The 2015 due dates for school assessments are contained in the VCAA Important Administrative Dates which should be used in conjunction with the Assessment Schedule for each study.
A complete list of important administrative dates can be found at:
www.vcaa.vic.edu.au/Pages/schooladmin/admindates/index.aspx
Release of student work
To assist schools with their end of year planning, the VCAA advises that schools can return School-assessed Tasks to students from Friday 30 October 2015. Schools should have a formal release process and a document that students sign on taking their work from the school premises
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for purposes such as an interview. However, the VCAA reserves the right to recall any work from a student should the need arise.
For advice in relation to School-assessed coursework schools are referred to The VCE and VCAL
Administrative Handbook 2015, page 44.
For any further information or for clarification of school-based assessment audit and review procedures, all enquiries should be sent to: [email protected]
Information sessions for School-assessed Tasks
Information sessions for School-assessed Tasks will be held in February and March. Teachers can register for the information/s session from the relevant individual VCE study pages:
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Resources available for school-based assessment
The VCE and VCAL Administrative Handbook 2015 provides general information on the VCE and is available on the VCAA website:
www.vcaa.vic.edu.au/Pages/schooladmin/handbook/2015/index.aspx The following table summarises documents that should be used by teachers:
Description Document
Curriculum requirements Study design Assessment advice for
School-assessed Coursework Current Assessment Handbooks – available online at: www.vcaa.vic.edu.au/Pages/vce/index.aspx
Note: The Advice for Teachers companion documents published in 2015 and beyond will contain both teaching and learning activities and assessment advice for School-assessed Coursework. Refer to the VCAA Bulletin No. 4 November, 2014, page 12.
Assessment criteria sheets for School-assessed Tasks and descriptors for the criteria Found in the study-specific administrative advice
Provided for School-assessed Tasks in: Algorithmics (HESS) (AL03)
Art (AR03)
Product Design and Technology (DT03) Food and Technology (FY03)
Media (ME03) Studio Arts (SA03)
Systems Engineering (SE03) and Visual Communication Design (VC03).
VCE Assessment Reports Reporting on the 2013 Assessment program
Reports produced for: end-of-year examinations
School-assessed Coursework (for studies in the first year of implementation in 2015)
The reports are made available on the VCAA website:
www.vcaa.vic.edu.au/Pages/vce/index.aspx
Authentication Forms for
School-assessed Coursework School-assessed Tasks Externally-assessed Tasks
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Contact details for enquiries related to School-based Assessment
Issue Contact Telephone & email Fax
School-based assessment audit and review
Authentication
VCE Curriculum (03) 9032 1735
(03) 9032 1799
Study design content Designing School- assessed Coursework Clarification of School-assessed Task (content)
Curriculum Managers (03) 9032 1677
(03) 9032 1799
Special Provision Assessment
Operations (03) 9225 2219 or 1800 205 455 [email protected] (03) 9225 2234 Student enrolments and
results
Amendments to student results
Partnerships VET programs
Student Records and
Results Unit (03) 9032 1742 [email protected] (03) 9032 1591
Technical and system support for VASS problems when entering assessments/results
Administrative
Support Unit (VASS) (03) 9032 1758 or 1800 623 681 or
