It is mandatory at Park Ridge State High School that all students complete and submit all assessment items including drafts. The school's assessment policy has been developed to achieve consistency, fairness and predictability so students know what will happen based on the choices they make. The policy is consistent with Queensland Curriculum & Assessment Authority policies (A-Z of Senior Moderation).
Principles
Park Ridge State High School expectations for teaching, learning and assessment are grounded in the principles of academic and excellence.
Assessment includes an examination, practical demonstration, performance or product that allows students to demonstrate the objectives as described by the syllabus. Assessment should be:
- Aligned with curriculum and pedagogy
- Equitable for all students
- Evidence based, using established standards and continua to make defensible and comparable judgements about students' learning
- Ongoing, with a range and balance of evidence complied over time to reflect the depth and breadth of students' learning
- Transparent, to enhance professional and public confidence in the processes used, the information obtained and the decisions made
- Informative of where students are in their learning.
Assessment
All assessment tasks are designed to meet the following principles:
- Validity – the extent to which an assessment accurately measures what it is intended to measure.
- Accessibility – the extent to which the assessment provides all students with a clear understanding of how to demonstrate their learning.
- Reliability – the extent to which an assessment will produce the same consistent result.
Read more about QCAA Attributes of Quality Assessment
Responsibilities
Students
- Ensure that all tasks are the original work of the student.
- Reference according to the school’s referencing policy
- Present a rough draft to teachers for each assessment piece by the due date where required.
- Complete all assessment tasks by the due date:
- Hard copy - Assessment tasks must be submitted by 4:00pm on the due date.
- Electronic copy - Assessment tasks must be submitted by 11:59pm on the due date.
- Year 11 and 12 (and for Yr 7 – 10 as directed by teacher) - Electronic submissions – must be submitted using Turnitin (via https://www.turnitin.com/login_page.asp?lang=en_us)
School
- Ensure that assessment task loads are reasonable and the amount of time allocated in class is a reflection of the time and effort needed to complete the task.
- Ensure that assessment tasks do not impose a significant financial cost to parents and/or guardians.
- Ensure that adequate resources are available and accessible to students.
- Ensure all processes are taught and assessed developmentally.
- Ensure sufficient time for the task to be completed.
- Set due dates that will be adhered to for draft and final due dates. HOD will be consulted before any due date changes can be made.
- Provide adequate task details, conditions for the assessment and evaluation criteria to the students in ample time for them to complete the task by the due dates.
- Teachers refer to the Late and non-submission of assessment tasks procedures document when applying assessment policy.
Academic integrity and academic misconduct
Park Ridge State High School and QCAA promotes academic integrity. Academic integrity is how a person approaches their academic responsibilities in an honest, moral and ethical way. Teachers, parents/guardians and others who support students in their learning must adhere to the guidelines for academic integrity.
Plagiarism, the copying of another person’s ideas, text, or other creative work and presenting it as one’s own, is not tolerated. Examples of plagiarism include:
• Copying or closely paraphrasing sentences or paragraphs.
• Copying ideas, concepts, tables, designs, sounds, images, music, scripts, research data mathematical workings etc.
• Copying or adapting another student’s work.
• “Cutting and pasting” statements gathered from a variety of sources.
• Submitting work produced by someone else on the student’s behalf.
Further information and training to help you understand the correct way to approach assessment, including advice on how to
maintain academic integrity and produce your best work, is available on the QCAA myQCE website.
Students will use Safe Assign (via elearn.eq.edu.au) for electronic submission of assessment for Year 11 and 12, and as directed by teacher for Years 7 – 10.
Consequences for misconduct
Students will be given credit only on their own work or may be required to re-do the assessment piece (conditions and setting at school's discretion). Behavioural consequences for academic cheating and plagiarism are described in the Responsible Behaviour Plan for Students.
Access arrangements and reasonable adjustments (AARA)
The Queensland Curriculum and Assessment Authority (QCAA) recognises that some students have disability, impairment and/or medical conditions, or experience other circumstances that may be a barrier to their performance in assessment. Access Arrangements and Reasonable Adjustments (AARA) are designed to assist these students.
| AARA's are provided to minimise, as much as possible, barriers for a student whose disability, impairment, medical condition or other circumstances may affect their ability to read, respond to or participate in assessment.
These barriers fall into three broad categories: - permanent
- temporary
- intermittent.
The QCAA uses broad application categories for AARA eligibility: - cognitive
- physical
- sensory
- social/emotional.
| Students are not eligible for AARA on the following grounds: - unfamiliarity with the English language
- teacher absence or other teacher-related difficulties
- matters that the student could have avoided (e.g. misreading an examination timetable, misreading instructions in examinations)
- matters of the student's or parent's/carer's own choosing (e.g. family holidays)
- matters that the school could have avoided (e.g. incorrect enrolment in a subject).
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Instructions for AARA Applications
- To be considered, an AARA Application Form (PDF, 1MB) must be submitted at a minimum of 2 days before the due date (where possible).
- The granting of AARA is at the discretion of the QCAA, the Principal, Principal's delegate and approved only:
- When the student successfully meets eligibility criteria; and
- The student's circumstance provides a barrier for eligible students to demonstrate their knowledge and skills in their assessment.
Late or non-submission of assessment tasks
Students must ensure that they take the opportunity provided to submit drafts and conference with their teacher within the given timelines of the assessment item. In the event of non-submission by due date or late submission of an assessment item – the drafts or planning evidence will be used in awarding a level of achievement. This is in accordance with the QCAA Policy on Non-Submission in the QCE &QCIA Handbook (2019 – 8.5.1), which states:
"In circumstances where students do not submit a final response to an assessment (other than unseen examinations) teachers make judgments based on evidence of student work collected for the purposes of authentication, during the assessment preparation period."
Details of coursework and assessment requirements within specific subject areas are provided by teachers in a timely fashion in order to allow students to plan their study program and take responsibility for managing their study time and habits. Students will be emailed their assessment calendar each semester and it lists due dates for all subject areas.
Academic Consequences for Late or Non-Submission of Assessment Tasks
If there is no evidence available to award a judgement, an assessment item is recorded as a 'Non-Submit' as a standard can only be awarded where evidence has been demonstrated. In cases of non-submission of student responses, an 'E' standard cannot be awarded where there is no evidence for it. Students who do not submit assessment risk not being given credit for completing that semester in the subject. This may impact on their Exit Level of Achievement in the subject, and correspondingly their ATAR and QCE eligibility.
Behavioural Consequences for Late or Non-Submission of Assessment Tasks
As described in the Responsible Behaviour Plan for Students, which state students failing to submit assessment, can expect to be given detention(s) and parental contact home. Students in Year 11 and 12 (post-compulsory) may also face Consequences under the school Active Engagement Policy.