1. TASSAB – The Tasmanian Secondary Assessment Board http://www.tassab.tased.edu. au/www/tassab/htm

2. Overview TASSAB’s prime purposes are to:  Provide upper secondary students with high quality syllabuses that meet their educational needs  Provide assessment, certification and reporting services that accurately reflect student achievement

3. Functions  to determine the syllabuses to be provided to students  to determine the manner in which assessments and determinations are to be made in respect of educational attainments

4. Role To work with schools to provide:  syllabuses for years 9-12  assessment procedures  certificates acknowledging achievement

5. TCE Assessment  Is criterion-based  Measures student performance against specified standards within criteria

6. Criteria  The criteria state the knowledge, skills and competencies that students must achieve in a syllabus  Within each criteria, the standards describe the graded outcomes attainable

7. Criteria There are 7 TCE generic criteria  Collecting, analysing and organising information (collect & categorise information)  Communicating ideas and information (communicate ideas & information)  Planning and organising activities (plan, organise & complete activities)  Working with others and in teams (work constructively with others)  Using mathematical ideas and techniques (select & use mathematical ideas & techniques)  Solving problems (examine & resolve issues)  Using technology (select & competently use technologies)

8. Syllabuses  There are 4 kinds of syllabuses –S syllabuses have 4 criteria (1 generic) & run for 25 hours –A syllabuses have 6 criteria (2 generic) & run for 50 hours –B syllabuses have 8 criteria (3 generic) & run for 100 hours –C syllabuses have 10 criteria (4 generic) (or 15 when externally assessed) & run for 150 hours

9. Syllabuses ctd.  Ascend through 5 levels of difficulty, with the 5 th level being the most demanding  (See overheads)

10. VET courses  See www.ntis.gov.auwww.ntis.gov.au  NTIS ( National Training Information Service) has been developed by ANTA (Australian National Training Authority) to provide access to current and emerging training market information and products in vocational education and training. Currently, the NTIS comprises a database of:  VET accredited courses (these are listed on the students TCE statement of results)  competency standards  Training Packages and  training providers and text information on a range of complementary issues.

11. Pre-tertiary syllabuses  UTas determines these syllabuses  These syllabuses are at level 5  5 of the criteria are both internally & externally assessed, the other 5 are internally assessed

12. Standards  Describe the graded outcomes attainable within each criterion  All standards must be met before a criterion can be achieved

13. Ratings  A, B & C identify the descriptive standards of achievement attainable within a syllabus  A ‘t’ or ‘z’ is awarded when the appropriate standard has not been achieved  ‘t’ is used when a student has demonstrated achievement less than the C standard. It is not described in the syllabus standards  ‘z’ is used when a student provides no evidence of achievement

14. Awards  EA - Exceptional Achievement  HA - High Achievement  CA – Commendable Achievement  SA – Satisfactory Achievement  PA – Preliminary Achievement –A student who receives the ratings for an SA, but who fails to show any evidence of achievement in 1 or more criteria (‘z’) can only be issued with a PA, OR –Students need only achieve the ratings prescribed by the algorithm to receive a PA

15. Guidelines for Internal Assessment  Students must be made aware of the standards so that they can monitor their progress & set targets for achievement  Teachers should schedule sufficient assessment tasks to enable them to provide valid, fair & reliable assessments.  Once having achieved a standard, students should be given opportunities to improve their rating

16. Validity of Assessment  Teachers should use diverse assessment methods, eg. observations, assignments, tests, peer & self assessment, oral presentations  Teachers should take care not to overload all tasks with assessments  Students should be made aware of the criteria being assessed & of the standards required for successful achievement

17. Moderation  Definition - the process of attaining comparability in the assessment of student achievement  Aim is to align teacher assessment judgements with TCE standards  2 meetings in all TCE subjects each year

18. Task  With a partner take a syllabus and “pull it apart” to understand it.   what does it contain?   what information would you need to teach it?   do you understand the assessment requirements?   outline the content of a lesson you would take in this syllabus