papers
A Procedure for Equating Curriculum-based Public Examinations Using Professional Judgment Informed by the Psychometric Analysis of Response Data and Student Scripts. Read more.
It is a great honour to receive this award and I thank the College for recognising me in this way. I would like to acknowledge at the outset that I am indebted to so many of the people in this room for their leadership, guidance and support. I would also like to acknowledge that some of the people here tonight played key roles in the development of the HSC in earlier years. I am fortunate that I have had the opportunity to learn from and build on the work of those people. I am particularly pleased to see members of my senior staff present. It is they who have helped me in recent times in further shaping the HSC and it will be they who will protect and develop it in the future. Read more.
Many education systems use standards-setting procedures based on professional judgement to assess and report student achievement. What features can be built into such standards-setting procedures to ensure that if over time more students are being awarded higher levels of achievement, this is happening because of genuine improvements in student learning? Without suitable checks and safeguards it is difficult to counter claims that an increase in the proportion of students achieving the higher standards is simply “grade inflation”. Read more.
The developments in assessment for learning are a welcome direction in education. Using information gained from assessment activities to assist teachers and students in understanding how students are progressing in their learning and to plan their next steps has tremendous potential for improving the quality of learning. Does such an approach have any place in a high stakes assessment environment, however, where the focus has tended to be on achieving the best possible final result for students in order to maximize their opportunities for further study or employment? Read more.