Curriculum: Learning, Teaching and Assessment > QCAR >

Assessment

There are two aspects of assessment within the QCAR framework:

School-based assessment and moderation
QCATs and QCAT moderation

Effective assessment practices related to both school-based assessment and QCATs require a good understanding of QCAR standards .

QCAR standards

Standards are an expectation of the quality of learning that students should reach by a particular point in their schooling - such as the depth of their understanding and the sophistication of their skills.

In the context of QCAR:

standards are the expectations of the quality of student achievement in both dimensions of the Essential Learnings: Ways of working and Knowledge and understanding
there is a generic set of standards expressed as a five point scale using A B C D E grades. Each grade of A-E is accompanied by a succinct summary statement
each key learning area has a set of assessable elements and related descriptors of quality for each of the grades A-E. The descriptors are statements that succinctly convey the required quality of, or features in, student work in order to be awarded the corresponding grade.

Throughout the semester, the generic QCAR standards, assessable elements and standards descriptors are used to make decisions about the quality of a student's learning in each key learning area. Results are entered into the student 's assessment portfolio. At the end of the semester all assessments are considered for each learning area and an overall semester grade awarded.

School-based assessment and moderation

Assessment of student achievement in each learning area is designed by the school. The assessment is developed prior to teaching the associated unit of work and is aligned with the Essential Learnings for the unit.

Guides to making judgments for assessing student achievement are developed using the assessable elements and descriptors of quality for each learning area. Teachers use the guide to making judgments when judging student responses to a task, and as the basis for moderating teacher judgments.

Moderation enables teachers to share and compare their judgments about student work in order to develop a common interpretation of standards and expectations of student achievement. A calibration model of moderation is recommended for school-based moderation in Queensland stateschools.

QCATs and QCAT moderation

QCATs are assessment tasks in English, mathematics and science for students in Years 4, 6 and 9. The tasks are devised by the Queensland Studies Authority and all students take the same task at approximately the same time in the year.

The exception is the unique contexts of small, rural, remote and special schools, where QCATs may be conducted in a different timeframe or deferred following consultation with the relevant Regional Director.

The purpose of the QCATs is to provide information about student learning in targeted Essential Learnings in English, mathematics and science and to help promote consistency of teacher judgments and comparability of reported results across the state.

In state schools, the QCATs are moderated at both a school level and an across-school level. A calibration model is recommended for school-based moderation and a conferencing model for across-school moderation.

^ Top of page