As detailed in the key dates for schools – Year 10, schools are to submit Stage 5 grades to the Board by 30 November this year. As in the past, these grades are based on the Stage 5 course performance descriptors. Teachers use their professional judgement to allocate the grade whose descriptor best matches the knowledge, skills and understanding of each student at the end of Stage 5.

The Board is providing additional support this year for school-based assessment and the consistency of teacher judgement. This support will supplement the Stage 5 graded work samples and advice already on the Assessment Resource Centre (ARC).

Early in Term 3 the Board will make available to each school, through Schools Online, graphs showing the grading history for each course. These graphs will illustrate the pattern of grades of the school in each course over past years. Additional graphs are already available through the Results Analysis Package.

Along with these graphs, schools will be able to access indicative grade ranges for 2012. This information will show the range of grades that could reasonably be expected based on the historical pattern of grades in each course. This additional information is intended to support schools and teachers in making grading decisions based on course performance descriptors. However, schools would be aware that there are many reasons why a cohort or elective group in one year may differ substantially from previous cohorts or elective groups.

As indicated in last week’s Board Bulletin (Monday 14 May), the Board of Studies is currently undertaking a project to strengthen support for school-based assessment and the award of grades for Year 10 and Preliminary courses. The project will involve the collection of a range of work samples that relate to syllabus based assessment activities. The work samples will be aligned to grades and published on the Board’s ARC website in September.

For more information:
Chris Thompson
Project Manager, Record of School Achievement
(02) 9367 8069
chris.thompson@bos.nsw.edu.au