Factors that make moderation easier:

where criteria are agreed upon. Using the same tasks with common aims and criteria enables assessors to know what they are looking for
where criteria for judgement are explicit and easy to see
where substantial amounts of work are sought from the student
where appropriate and realistic tasks are set for particular levels to meet students’ capabilities
where tasks are sufficiently open-ended to allow students to demonstrate more widely across levels
where details of the context are provided
where teachers are familiar with the Curriculum Standards Framework (CSF) and are able to set tasks designed to meet learning outcomes
where provision is made for pooling and discussing opinions about students’ work.

Factors that make moderation difficult:

where student’s work shows insufficient evidence (ensure there is more than one work sample)
where teachers set different tasks which need clarification of what they had been taught and how
where tasks are poorly set
when a piece of work shows achievement of outcomes at more than one level
where teachers have difficulty interpreting the exact meaning of the syllabus standards.

Findings from Consistency Project Report 1998 [DEETYA])

internalise stage understandings
understanding the outcomes: clarifying definitions and wording
developing similar assessment criteria for tasks as a basis for comparing judgements
acknowledging and agreeing upon the role of prior knowledge of students
fine – tuning transition points
using multiple task samples versus single task samples
on-balance judgements versus one-off judgements
how to construct quality assessment tasks
developing different and additional indicators