Senior Secondary Assessment
The Senior Secondary Assessment Board of South Australia (SSABSA) sets out principles and practices of assessment at Stage 1 and Stage 2 of the NTCE. It is based on the broad aims of the NTCE as a certificate of completion that should:
- Encourage the successful completion of secondary education;
- Foster students’ acquisition of the skills and knowledge necessary for successful participation in contemporary Australian society;
- Attest to students’ preparedness to enter post-school studies and employment; and
- Be a certificate that is valued by the community and by those who hold it.
Assessment at Stage 1
At Stage 1 of the NTCE, SSABSA has delegated considerable responsibility to schools for preparing teaching programs conducting assessment and recognising achievement based on these assessments. Teachers use the specific SSABSA Stage 1 curriculum statement to develop their teaching program and assessment plan.
All Stage 1 subjects require an approved assessment plan:
- Assessment plans are developed for teaching programs in accordance with the SSABSA assessment plan form
- Assessment plans are submitted for approval by DEET Senior Years Project Managers.
- Changes made to the assessment plan, after approval, are noted on the school copy of the plan
- A brief program rationale (to support the approvals process) and a detailed listing of tasks, assessment criteria and weightings are needed
The specific assessment requirements for each Stage 1 course are available in the subject’s curriculum statement.
Assessment at Stage 2
At Stage 2 of the NTCE, SSABSA provides in-course standards support moderation for selected subjects and end-of-course standards validation for all subjects.
Assessment Standards Support is designed to guide the teacher’s marking standard during the course. All assessment standards support takes the form of non-statistical moderation.
Assessment Standards Validation takes place at the end of the course and may involve changes to students’ results to ensure comparability of marking standards between schools. In some subjects, assessment standards validation takes the form of non-statistical moderation; in other subjects it takes the form of statistical moderation.
The specific assessment requirements for each Stage 2 course are available in the subject’s curriculum statement.
Moderation
Moderation is designed to ensure that assessments within a subject are comparable across all classes and schools. Moderation may consist of support moderation, which is conducted periodically during the school year for some subjects, or final moderation, which occurs at the end of the each unit for all subjects.
Moderation takes the following forms:
- Central moderation
- Group moderation
- School-based moderation
- Statistical moderation
Further information on these forms of moderation can be found on the SSABSA website.
Special Provisions in Assessment
Under some circumstances, schools can apply for Special Provisions in Assessment, if a student’s capacity to take part in an assessment task is adversely affected in a significant way because of illness, impairment of personal circumstances.
Assessment of Vocational Education and Training (VET) competencies
Where students complete VET competencies as part of the NTCE, the Registered Training Organisation (RTO) will assess them. Assessment in VET is made up of two parts. Students initially must complete a certain number of hours of instruction. They then must display their understanding in a work situation. This can be either in a real or virtual workplace. If the students completes the number of training hours required and successfully shows how this training can be used in the workplace, they will be graded as competent. This means that the student has passed the competency. If they do not complete all the training hours required and/or are unable to show how the training can be used in a work situation, they will be graded as not competent, which means that they have failed the competency.
Students do not have to complete a whole certificate to earn NTCE credits. Students will receive one NTCE credit per 50 hours of training where they are graded as competent.
Levels of achievement
For the purposes of completing the NTCE, student achievement in NTCE subjects is assessed at the following levels:
SATISFACTORY ACHIEVEMENT (SA)
This is the higher of the two levels of achievement. A result of ‘satisfactory achievement’ against a unit means that:
- At Stage 1 – the student has demonstrated evidence of achievement that is equivalent to a score of 10 or more out of 20 in an approved unit of study, according to the criteria for judging performance in the relevant curriculum statement. In Community Studies, the student must present evidence of having completed all the tasks agreed to on his/her contract of work.
- At Stage 2 – the student has gained a Subject Achievement Score of 10 or more out of 20. In Community Studies, the student must present evidence of having completed all the tasks according to the criteria negotiated in his/her contract of work. In the SSABSA-VET ‘A’ subjects and the Languages ‘A’ Pathways subjects, the student has demonstrated evidence of achievement that is equivalent to a score of 10 or more out of 20 in an approved unit of study, according to the criteria for judging performance in those curriculum statements.
Students must gain satisfactory achievement in at least 16 of the 22 units required for the NTCE.
RECORDED ACHIEVEMENT (RA)
This is the lower of the two levels of achievement. A result of ‘recorded achievement’ against a unit means that:
- At Stage 1 – the student has demonstrated evidence of achievement that is equivalent to a score of between 3 and 9 out of 20 in an approved unit of study, according to the criteria for judging performance in the relevant curriculum statement. In Community Studies, the student must present evidence of having attempted some of the tasks agreed to on his/her contract of work.
- At Stage 2 – the student has gained a Subject Achievement Score of between 3 and 9 out of 20. In Community Studies, the student must present evidence of having attempted some of the tasks according to the criteria negotiated in his/her contract of work. In the SSABSA-VET ‘A’ subjects and the Languages ‘A’ Pathways subjects, the student has demonstrated evidence of achievement that is equivalent to a score of between 3 and 9 out of 20 in an approved unit of study, according to the criteria for judging performance in those curriculum statements.
Students may obtain recorded achievement in up to 6 of the 22 units required for the NTCE.
Where a student fails to meet the requirements of a satisfactory achievement or recorded achievement, they receive a REQUIREMENTS NOT MET (RNM).