Purpose of assessment

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Assessment is the process of identifying, gathering and interpreting information about student achievement. In Stage 6, assessment can be used for a number of purposes, including to:

assist student learning
evaluate and improve teaching and learning programs
provide information on student learning and progress in a course in relation to the syllabus outcomes
provide evidence of satisfactory completion of a course
report on the achievement of each student at the end of a course.

In the context of the Higher School Certificate (HSC), a requirement of a school-based assessment program is to provide a summative measure of a student's achievement in relation to course outcomes. This includes:

a wider range of syllabus outcomes than may be measured by external examinations alone
multiple measures and observations made throughout the course rather than a single assessment event.

Assessment tasks are conducted throughout Year 11 and Year 12 and each has a weighting determined by the school within requirements provided by NESA. Each formal task enables teachers to collect information about the students' achievement in relation to several outcomes, to award marks in accordance with marking guidelines, and to provide constructive feedback to students on their performance, highlighting their strengths and where they could make improvements.

Measuring achievement at several points during the course can provide a better indication of student achievement than a single, final measure on its own as:

multiple measures generally give a more accurate measure of each student's achievement
this caters for any knowledge and skills outcomes that are better assessed in specific settings or at specific times (for example research, fieldwork or practical skills).

Finalising Year 12 marks

At the end of the Year 12 course the marks for each task are aggregated using weightings previously published in the school's assessment policy, to arrive at a final assessment mark for each student. These assessment marks, which are then submitted to NESA provide a rank order of students and show relative differences between students' performances. This is best achieved when a sufficiently wide mark range is used in allocating the marks for the individual tasks.

Marks are used to measure and report student achievement in both the external examination and school-based assessment. Marks enable the characteristics that discriminate between different degrees of performance to be captured and used in reporting student performance in ways that are not possible if bands (or grades or levels) alone are used.

In a standards-referenced approach, the marks submitted to NESA reflect the rank order and relative differences between the achievements of students, based on the extent to which students have demonstrated the specific knowledge and skills being assessed. The rank order and differences are based on explicit standards incorporated in the syllabus, performance descriptions and the HSC standards materials.

Assessment results are then moderated by NESA to ensure that marks submitted by different schools can be compared.

What are schools expected to do for Stage 6 assessment?

In a standards-referenced approach, schools are expected to:

conduct school-based assessment programs that allow students to demonstrate the breadth and depth of their knowledge, understanding and skills in relation to outcomes
develop quality assessment tasks and well-constructed marking guidelines
provide effective feedback to students in relation to their strengths and areas for improvement
encourage students to take greater responsibility for their own learning
evaluate and refine teaching programs in response to student performance
report student achievement to various audiences including parents and others, in ways that meet their needs
report Year 12 assessment marks to NESA that provide appropriate discrimination between students in terms of their overall achievement in a course.