Purpose of assessment

In Stage 6, assessment can be used for a number of purposes, including to:

• assist student learning
• evaluate and improve teaching and learning programs
• provide information on student learning and progress in a course in relation to the syllabus outcomes
• provide evidence of satisfactory completion of a course
• report on the achievement of each student at the end of a course.

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At the end of the Year 12 course the marks for each task are aggregated using weightings previously published in the school's assessment policy, to arrive at a final assessment mark for each student. These assessment marks, which are then submitted to NESA provide a rank order of students and show relative differences between students' performances. This is best achieved when a sufficiently wide mark range is used in allocating the marks for the individual tasks.

Marks are used to measure and report student achievement in both the external examination and school-based assessment. Marks enable the characteristics that discriminate between different degrees of performance to be captured and used in reporting student performance in ways that are not possible if bands (or grades or levels) alone are used.

In a standards-referenced approach, the marks submitted to NESA reflect the rank order and relative differences between the achievements of students, based on the extent to which students have demonstrated the specific knowledge and skills being assessed. The rank order and differences are based on explicit standards incorporated in the syllabus, performance descriptions and the HSC standards materials.

NESA then Loading  assessment results to ensure that marks submitted by different schools can be compared.

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In a standards-referenced approach, schools are expected to: 

• conduct school-based assessment programs that allow students to demonstrate the breadth and depth of their knowledge, understanding and skills in relation to outcomes 
• develop quality assessment tasks and well-constructed marking guidelines 
• provide effective feedback to students in relation to their strengths and areas for improvement 
• encourage students to take greater responsibility for their own learning 
• evaluate and refine teaching programs in response to student performance 
• report student achievement to various audiences including parents and others, in ways that meet their needs 
• report Year 12 assessment marks to NESA that provide appropriate discrimination between students in terms of their overall achievement in a course. 

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