4020 Responsive assessment in context

1. 4020 Responsive assessment in context Assessing student learning and achievement in the context of the Queensland Curriculum and Reporting Framework (QCARF)

2. Acknowledgement The following presentation is a summary of the following: “How a centrally managed focus on aligning curriculum, assessment and reporting can exert positive influences on teacher practice” by Janina Drazek & Yvana Jones 1. Assistant Director, Curriculum Development, QCAR Assessment Branch, Queensland Studies Authority, Brisbane. 2. Deputy Director, Teaching and Learning Division, Queensland Studies Authority, Brisbane.

3. The Queensland context • Queensland Studies Authority (QSA) has responsibility for the development of syllabuses, assessment and tertiary certification • Queensland schools (from the 3 sectors-Education Queensland sector, Independent sector and Catholic sector) develop and administer assessment in the context of school based assessment • QSA-developed syllabuses and relevant assessment policy is mandated for all EQ schools but not all sectors

4. QSA and EQ • QSA is a statutory body of the Queensland government, a distinct organisation from EQ. They are not the same organisation • The EQ sector however is QSA’s major ‘client’ • QSA has a responsibility to ‘serve’ all sectors

5. What is QCAR(F) • The QCARF was originally a government funded project supported by the 3 sectors and formed phase 2 of the Smart State Strategy. • It’s purpose was to improve the assessment capability of Queensland teachers • The project resulted from research into assessment and teaching practices in Queensland schools known as the New Basics Project (circa 2000). New Basics assessment policy revolved around the notion of Rich Tasks, which drew heavily on principles aligned with Productive Pedagogies(2001)

6. History From1999 to 2004, there was a significant transformation in the curriculum, assessment and reporting policy of the Queensland Government and the Department of Education, namely: • The insistence on a centrally-designed specification of content rather than learning outcomes • the dissatisfaction with the “level” structure of the syllabuses • the preference for a return to an age-graded (year-level) structure • the perception that a standards-driven curriculum would be greatly valued by the education community and the community at large

7. Policy document • This dissatisfaction found expression in the policy document Queensland Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Framework (QSA, 2005).

8. 5 components • The QCAR Framework consists of five components: Essential Learnings, Standards, Assessment Bank, Queensland Comparable Assessment Tasks (QCATs), and Reporting. • It originally covered year 1-10 • Now, there are Year 10 Guidelines

9. The QCAR Framework

10. Component 1: Essential Learnings • Essential Learnings are clear statements of what should be taught in Queensland schools. They describe the key concepts, facts, procedures and processes that young students in Queensland should learn in order to participate effectively in contemporary social, civic and economic life and engage with other cultures. The QCAR Framework specifies at key junctures—by the end of Years 3, 5, 7 and 9—what students should have opportunities to learn.

11. Emphasis QCAR assessment instruments emphasise that assessment should: • foster higher-order thinking, persistence, construction of meaning and deep understanding • contribute to learning and be integrated with the teaching and learning process • assess “big ideas” in curriculum by focusing on broad clusters of concepts, processes and capabilities • foster application of concepts and principles, inquiry and problem solving in the real world

12. Component 2: Standards • Standards describe the expected qualities of student work and provide a basis for judging how well students have demonstrated what they know, understand and can do. • Teacher judgment using standards requires teachers to match evidence in student work against descriptors written for the purpose of explicitly describing performance across a range of evidence.

14. Component 3: Assessment Bank • The Assessment Bank provides online resources to support teachers in their everyday assessment practice. The Bank contains assessment items that are linked to the Essential Learnings and Standards, and are accompanied by administration guidelines, a Guide to making judgments and Sample student responses.

15. Component 4: QCATs • The Queensland Comparable Assessment Tasks (QCATs) in Years 4, 6 and 9 are centrally-developed performance-based assessment instruments designed to support student learning, and provide low-stakes data. • The QCAT assessments are experienced under common conditions, have some common parameters for all students, e.g. recommended times to do the assessment,and are marked by teachers using a common, centrally-devised Guide to making judgments.

16. Component 5: Reporting • Reportingguidelines provide advice to schools and school sectors to inform twice-yearly reports, and on reporting student achievement on the QCATs to students and parents. Reporting is made on a 5 point scale A-E with A being the highest level of achievement.

17. What is good assessment? According to the QCARF good assessment is: “the purposeful, systematic and ongoing collection of information as evidence about student learning” and hence it should:

18. Focuses • focus on students’ demonstrations of learning • be comprehensive • be valid and reliable • take account of individual learners • be an integral part of the learning and teaching process • provide opportunities for students to take responsibility for their own learning and for monitoring their own progress • reflect equity principles.

19. Support The QCAR Framework values classroom assessment practices. The Framework aims to support teaching and assessment processes by: • aligning curriculum, assessment and reporting • providing practical models through the Assessment Bank and the QCATs of what principles of effective assessment look like in practice.

20. Assessment components of the QCAR Framework • An online Assessment Bank for use by teachers in Years 1 to 9. • The centrally-devised QCATs designed to provide comparable statements of student achievement in aspects of the Essential Learnings in English, Mathematics and Science, and one other area, at Years 4, 6 and 9. • A common standards framework for Years 1 to 9, including a 5-point scale for reporting student achievement of Essential Learnings.

21. Assessment Bank (AB) The Queensland Assessment Bank is an online dynamic collection of a range of quality, rigorous assessment and resource items for Years 1 to 9 which are linked to the Essential Learnings and Standards. Generally, assessment items are published as a complete package that comprises: • teacher guidelines for administration, • Student booklet • Indicative A response • Samples of student work • a Guide to making judgments,

22. Access to the AB • All Queensland teachers, pre-servive teachers, academic staff may access the online assessment bank; • they may use and adapt any of its items, or even design new assessments using the banked items as models. • Teachers may use the assessment items for in-class assessments, or may opt to use the range of student work samples as reference points for clarifying what standards look like in actual student work • They are not high-stakes

23. A common understanding of Standards • The Assessment Bank assists the development of a common understanding of standards. This understanding will develop over time as teachers use the resources as a basis for discussions about standards and evidence and thus come to hold a common view about how those standards will look in student work.

24. Queensland Comparable Assessment Tasks (QCATs) • The common statewide assessment tasks will involve authentic and complex tasks that allow students to demonstrate their breadth and depth of understanding of the Essential Learnings. Students will complete these tasks under common conditions such as using the same kinds of equipment, working alone or in groups, or having a choice of written or oral presentations. As much as possible, the common assessment tasks will avoid the flavour of point-in-time tests. The intention is to allow students to demonstrate their best work (Queensland Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Framework, QSA, 2005:9).

25. Purpose of QCATs • QCATs are intended to provide teachers, students, parents and the wider community with information about student learning, to support student learning by providing teachers with performance-based data, and to build assessment capacity in teachers by providing models of quality, performance-based assessments. Information derived from the assessments can be used to improve school learning programs and direct individual learning for students.

26. Specifically, the purpose of QCATs is to: • provide schools with a common assessment model to support, and improve over time, consistency of teacher judgments of student achievement • model quality assessment to enhance the assessment capability of the Years 1 to 9 teaching workforce, and to promote effective school-based assessment practice (with a focus on the Essential Learnings and Standards) • provide parent/carers with information on how well their child is achieving in the Queensland comparable assessment of a selection of Essential Learnings • provide feedback to students.

27. Each QCAT: • is a centrally-developed, standards-referenced, authentic, performance task designed to provide evidence of what students know and can do in relation to achievement in targeted Essential Learnings for English, Mathematics and Science at Years 4, 6 and 9. Five grades are used for reporting on achievement.

28. Authentic assessment • Performance-based assessments are frequently called ‘authentic’ assessment because they engage students in ‘real world’ tasks rather than multiple choice exercises, and evaluate them according to criteria that are important for actual performance in that field (Darling-Hammond, Ancess, & Falk, 1995:10).

29. Advantages • One of the promises of performance-based assessments is that they will place greater emphasis on problem solving, critical thinking, reasoning and metacognition in contrast to assessment by multiple-choice measures, cloze exercises short-answer questions that are more commonly used by teachers to test knowledge and understanding. In moving away from more customary modes of assessment, the complexity of authentic performance-based assessment is seen as a way of engaging students in assessment ‘of and for’ learning

30. Performance-based assessment The common attributes of authentic performance-based assessments are: • the use of open-ended tasks • a focus on higher order or complex skills • the employment of context sensitive strategies • the frequent use of complex problems requiring several types

31. Key QCARF Dimensions The Essential Learnings are divided into 2 organisers known as Dimensions: • Knowledge and understanding • Ways of working (what learners do with knowledge and understanding, demonstration of learning)

32. What’s happened to QCARF? QCARF is no longer a project of the QSA but rather has been integrated in the following ways into QSA core business • The Assessment Bank continues to publish assessment packages modelled on the Essential Learnings • QCATs are continually being written across English, Maths, Science and are published on the Assessment Bank

33. Relevance • The Essentials are still the mandated curriculum for EQ schools so they are relevant until there is an Australian Curriculum available to teach • This means that for any KLAs other than Maths, English, Science and then History, the Essential Learnings are relevant for the next 3 years (?) • SOSE will remain a KLA until History is implemented

34. Potential Problems • Transition of Year 7 to high school • Up-skilling of teachers required (deeper KLA knowledge required) • SOSE replaced by History and Geography • Compulsory Languages F-8 • Interpreting the Achievement Standards • The importance of Ways of working (skills) in Queensland curriculum, not just knowledge