Senior Secondary

School moderation program

Each year, the assessment and grading practices in particular courses/stages at selected schools are reviewed by Council moderation officers. The purpose of this school moderation program is to ensure that:

  • the Council’s requirements are understood and are being implemented.
  • grading procedures are understood and are being implemented.

School moderation is scheduled where a school is introducing or reintroducing a course/stage, if requested by the school principal, or where evidence suggests to the Council an assessment issue may exist in a particular course/stage at a school. Schools are provided with at least three weeks notice in writing.

School moderation can take the form of:

  • a documentation review, or 
  • a grading review.

A moderation review can involve either a school visit by a Council officer or, where this is not viable, through the school sending materials to the Council for review.

For a documentation review, the school is required to make available the following materials:

  • the course outline (or teaching and learning program). 
  • the assessment outline for the current unit (or pair of units if using a combined assessment outline).
  • student assessment records for the class or classes (i.e. the marks book) up to the time of the review.
  • the assessment tasks conducted up to the time of the review and any developed for use later in the year.
  • the marking keys for assessment tasks conducted up to the time of the review and any developed for use later in the year.
  • an internal comparability plan (if there is more than one teacher of the course at the stage)
  • a small group moderation plan (if the school is in a small group moderation partnership for the course at the stage).

For a grading review, the following additional materials are required together with the materials for a documentation review:

  • a ranked list of students based on total marks up to the time of the review.
  • a proposed grade distribution for the unit/s (i.e. the anticipated number and percentage of students at each grade up to the time of the review.
  • a set of assessment files containing all marked tasks completed by students either side of each grade cut-off point.

Further description of each of the materials required for school moderation is provided in Section 4.6.1 and 4.6.2 of the WACE Manual 2011.

At the conclusion of the school moderation process, the principal receives a written report.

 

Recent Publications

WACE Manual 2010-11

WACE Manual 2012

Last Updated:08/ 02/ 2011 10:48