The Board of Studies has received a second award for the Assessment Resource Centre (ARC), recognising the ways it has revolutionised school assessment and reporting in NSW.

At the Premier's Public Sector Awards, presented on 13 November 2008, the Board received a Commended Award in the "Delivering the Plan - Business" category for the ARC.

Left to right: John Lee, DG, the Department of Premier and Cabinet, Carol Taylor, Director, Assesment and Examinations, OBOS, and Dr John Bennett, General Manager, OBOS

The awards formally recognise and reward the achievement of excellence by the New South Wales public sector, acknowledging initiatives which have produced measurable outcomes with proven results and benefits to the state.

General Manager of the Office of the Board of Studies, Dr John Bennett, said the ARC used real samples of student work graded by groups of teachers who agree on each sample's level of achievement according to the Board's Common Grade Scale (A-E or equivalent).

"This collective grading gives teachers confidence that they are marking their students' work properly," Dr Bennett said.

"Put simply, the ARC allows teachers to ensure a B grade in Bondi means the same as a B in Ballina or Bourke."

The ARC is a free online resource available to more than 85,000 teachers in over 3000 NSW schools. It currently has more than 1800 real student work samples from Kindergarten to Year 10, based on more than 350 class activities. More than 1500 of these samples have been graded A-E by teachers from every part of NSW.

The ARC also includes some 28,000 HSC work samples, previously printed in Standards Packages.

"Part of the ARC's strength lies in the fact that it is readily accessible to teachers throughout the state, providing them with consistent information on student grades," Dr Bennett said.

"It gives every NSW teacher, no matter where they live or work, unprecedented access to the professional judgements of their peers."

The ARC was this year awarded Silver (Highly Commended) at the national awards for e-Government (the 2008 Australian Government Information Management Office CeBIT awards).

Visit the ARC for more information.