Assessment and reporting

Assessment

Schools must provide accessible ways for students with disability to demonstrate their learning. This is required under the Disability Standards for Education 2005.

Schools must provide adjustments for students with disability who need them for school-based assessment activities and tasks from Kindergarten to Year 12, including exams. These decisions are the responsibility of the school and must be made collaboratively with parents or carers and the student themselves, if appropriate.

Adjustments explained

Adjustments enable a student with disability to access syllabus outcomes and content on the same basis as their peers. They ensure equal access to assessment activities and tasks, not an advantage. The types of adjustments depend on each student’s needs.

Types of adjustments

Following are adjustments some students may need for assessment activities and tasks. 

Adjustments to the assessment process, for example:

• extra time in an exam
• more time to complete a take-home task, including checkpoints for progress
• rescheduling a task
• step-by-step or scaffolding instructions
• use of a reader, scribe or assistive technology
• extra guidance, like suggested websites to research
• accessible materials or support, such as reading stimulus at the student’s appropriate reading level
• highlighted key words and phrases
• additional information, like word banks, labelled diagrams, or visual cues.

Adjustments to the assessment activity or task, for example:

• reworded or simplified questions
• different question types, such as ones that ask for short responses instead of long ones
• visual tasks instead of reading tasks
• alternate tasks that assess the same skill.

Adjustments to alternative formats for responses, for example: 

• use of assistive technology
• answering in point form or notes instead of with an extended response
• using scaffolded structured responses for an extended response
• answering short objective questions to build towards an extended response
• oral responses instead of written ones
• answering using a matrix or labelled diagram instead of a written response
• using multimedia presentations instead of an oral response. 

HSC and NAPLAN disability provisions

Students may need to sit HSC examinations for their courses. They will also need to demonstrate a minimum standard of literacy and numeracy to receive the HSC through short online tests set by NESA.

Students with disability may access disability provisions for both the HSC examinations and the minimum standard tests. 

Schools decide on adjustments for Years 11 and 12 course work and formal school-based assessment tasks. There is no guarantee these adjustments will match those granted for HSC disability provisions. 

Students with disability can also access disability adjustments for the NAPLAN tests.

Reporting

Reporting provides feedback to students, parents, and other teachers about student progress. In a standards-referenced framework, teachers make professional judgements about student achievement. This is done at key points in the learning cycle.

Using the Common Grade Scale

NESA has developed a Common Grade Scale for Years 1 to 10 and a Common Grade Scale for Preliminary courses that can be used to report student achievement using A to E grades.

In Year 12, student achievement can be reported using school-based assessment marks.

If adjustments are used, students should still have access to the full range of grades or marks.  

Teachers may need to consider the most appropriate method of reporting student achievement. This may include reporting against personalised goals and syllabus outcomes identified during collaborative curriculum planning.

Parents and carers should be consulted on decisions about reporting for their child. Teachers should also seek advice from their school and sector.

K–10 students working towards selected outcomes

The Common Grade Scale or equivalent can be used for students in Years 1 to 10 if they are working towards:

• selected outcomes from their age and stage of schooling
• outcomes from an earlier stage.

It should be clear which outcomes the grade is reporting against.

Students studying Life Skills

Teachers should not use the Common Grade Scale or equivalent for students studying: 

• Years 7–10 courses based on Life Skills outcomes and content
• Years 11–12 Life Skills courses.