Schools are responsible for communicating the Directions for students: External assessment to students. They are provided by the QCAA in Semester 1.
10.5.1 Academic integrity in external assessments
The QCAA publishes directions and procedures in the QCAA Portal each year to help schools prepare for external assessment. The DFA allows schools to administer the assessments using a consistent approach across the state and ensuring student responses are their own. For information about academic integrity, see Section 8.1: Understanding academic integrity.
The academic responsibilities inherent in assessment administration should be approached by all parties in an honest, moral and ethical way. The following table sets out specific responsibilities of schools, EA coordinators, teachers and students.
Party | Responsibility |
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Schools |
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EA coordinators |
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Teachers |
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Students |
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10.5.2 Preparing for an external assessment session
The following table sets out information about the main responsibilities in preparing for an external assessment session.
Main responsibilities in preparing for the external assessment session | Policy and procedures |
|---|---|
Assessment materials — delivery | If assessment materials are not delivered to the school by the due date (communicated to schools via the QCAA Portal), the EA coordinator must contact the QCAA. |
Assessment materials — movement and storage | Collection and security of external assessment materials are the responsibility of the principal. Security breaches must be reported to the QCAA immediately. |
Allocation of supervisors | Senior secondary teachers are ineligible to supervise an external assessment for any subject they are teaching that year. The EA coordinator allocates suitable staff to supervise at a 1:25 supervision ratio (not including QCAA-appointed invigilators/observers; see Section 10.1: External assessment roles and responsibilities). |
AARA | The EA coordinator gathers information about principal-reported and QCAA-approved AARA to ensure that students are provided with the required AARA, such as appropriate materials, supervision, rooms and equipment. The EA coordinator ensures students with approved AARA in separate rooms are appropriately supervised. |
Technology | Guidelines for the use of technology will be provided for each external assessment. There are exceptions for approved AARA (see Section 6: Access arrangements and reasonable adjustments (AARA), including illness and misadventure). |
