1. CEA Case Study
Marianne Farrugia

2. Certified Educational Assessors course
9 consultants from Catholic Education Office Religious Identity Leading Learning team
Completed 5 modules across 2015
Engaged in case study across 2016

3. Some observations…
Little recognition of the importance of achievement standards in the whole of the curriculum design process
Assessment practices do not have a direct line of site to the learning intentions / achievement standards
Assessment practices do not enable students to demonstrate achievement above the standard
Moderation practices do not exist
Staffs are too small to moderate effectively
Single assessment piece moderation rather than a portfolio of learning
Overuse of grades as feedback
STANDARDS REFERENCED ASSESSMENT IS NOT YET FULLY REALISED ACROSS CESA

4. HIGH QUALITY TEACHING AND LEARNING
5.3 Assessment and Reporting
Assessment practices are aligned to the curriculum and are designed to clarify, diagnose and monitor students’ learning progress over time.
Teachers have a clear understanding of standards for assessment and participate in moderation activities which support consistent and comparable judgements of student learning.
Reporting practices align with system and government requirements.
Reporting practices are aligned to the curriculum and provide specific, accurate, constructive and timely feedback to students.

5. Pilot project 2016 8 Small primary schools and 1 large
Geographically close
Work in partnership
1semester in length

6. Pilot project aims
Assist staff to develop their assessment literacy in relation to the standards referenced nature of the Australian Curriculum
Prepare staff for the effective use of portfolio moderation processes in order to assure quality of assessment decisions in relation to the standard and improve quality of assessment design.

7. Format 5 inter school professional learning sessions Online discussion
Defining assessment
Assessment and learning
Standards referenced assessment
Validity and reliability
Differentiation
Effective feedback
Using rubrics
Moderation processes and protocols
5 inter school professional learning sessions
Online discussion
1 professional conversation in learning teams
Inter school moderation session

8. Moderation is a professional discussion for the purpose of achieving:
Quality assurance - Comparability and consistency of judgement
Quality improvement - Improvement of assessment design, learning design and student outcomes

9. Key understandings
We assess and report in relation to the achievement standards, therefore the achievement standards are important to learning design Achievement standards are meant to be dealt with holistically – they represent overall achievement at the end of a year or a band There is one standard with five levels of achievement therefore assessment should provide opportunity for students to demonstrate the depth of their understanding, the sophistication of their skills and the extent of their applied knowledge in relation to the standard Content consists of content descriptions, general capabilities and cross curriculum priorities Content is a tool to enable achievement at the standard ‘Standards acquire meaning, or have meaning ascribed to them, through use over time and as understandings develop through communities of users’ Royce Sadler

10. Key understandings
We can only assess that which we have given opportunity to learn Formative assessment is at the heart of effective teaching and learning Quality feedback for the learner is essential to learning Purpose of feedback is to close the gap between current understanding/performance and the desired goal Grades are not quality feedback A collection of best evidence of learning (portfolio) is required to make an overall grade decision in relation the achievement standard Assessment tasks can take many forms. It is the annotation of the evidence to identify the learning demonstrated that is the key link to the achievement standard

11. findings Challenges Successes
Differences in pedagogy and learning design
Online collaboration!
What counts as evidence
Time
Short term project
Good assessment design relies upon good learning design
Collaboration
Reflective practice
Supported
Improved alignment with achievement standard
Recognition of place of A-E grading

12. Way forward Learning design improvement – UBD project
Future scope for a more wide scale assessment and moderation project